"Renaissance" is a French word meaning re-birth that has been applied to the revival of classical architecture (and other arts and sciences) that began ("accelerated" is perhaps a better word here) in Italy in the 1400s. It is important to remember that the inheritance of the classical world was never completely abandoned in Gothic art and certain artists of the late Middle Ages drew strongly on classical principles. The Renaissance also witnessed the birth of the "cult" of the creative genius. Consequently, we know a great deal more about the careers of individual architects from this point on. The center of the "early" Renaissance (circa 1420-1500) in Italy was Florence, a city blessed with a strong economy, enlightened patrons and great artists.

Filippo Brunelleschi is recognized as the first architectural genius of the Renaissance. A goldsmith by training, he not only used classical architectural themes and motifs (e.g. Foundlings Hospital, aka Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence, 1419-1424; San Lorenzo, Florence, 1421-1425, 1442-1446 (initial patron: Cosimo d' Medici); the Pazzi Chapel, Florence, c. 1430-), but solved the "problem" of creating the great dome over the Florence Cathedral (a.k.a. the "Duomo" or Santa Maria della Fiore, 1419-36). His fertile mind also produced the first system of optical perspective since antiquity.

Leon Battista Alberti was the next great architect of the early Renaissance. A scholar with many talents, his buildings demonstrated his desire to recapture the forms and sculptural qualities of ancient Roman architecture (e.g. San Francesco "Tempio Malatestiano," for Sigismondo Malatesta, Rimini, c. 1450; San Andrea, Mantua, circa 1470-). Alberti also wrote the first architecural treatise since Vitruvius--De re aedificatoria (completed in 1452, but first published in 1485).

Although religious buildings were the subject of most great early Renaissance architectural efforts, a number of other architects also designed urban palaces for wealthy families, e.g. Palazzo Rucellai, Florence, 1455-1470, Alberti (?) architect; Palazzo Medici-Ricardi, Florence, 1444-1459, Michelozzo architect; Palzzo Strozzi, Florence, c. 1489-, Giuliano da Sangallo and/ or Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano.