Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai

Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai
Patronage portrait of Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, in the background his principal works in Florence: Palazzo and Loggia Rucellai, the façade of Santa Maria Novella and the Tempietto of the Holy Sepulchre. Oil on board, attributed to Francesco Salviati, about 1540
Patronage portrait of Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, in the background his principal works in Florence: Palazzo and Loggia Rucellai, the façade of Santa Maria Novella and the Tempietto of the Holy Sepulchre. Oil on board, attributed to Francesco Salviati, about 1540
Born
Giovanni Rucellai

(1403-12-26)26 December 1403
Died1481(1481-00-00) (aged 77–78)
Florence, Republic of Florence
NationalityFlorentine
Known forPalazzo Rucellai, patronage of the arts, façade of Santa Maria Novella, the Zibaldone
SpouseIacopa Strozzi (m. c. 1428)
Childrenincluding Bernardo
RelativesGiovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (grandson)

Giovanni Rucellai (26 December 1403 – 1481), known by his name with the patronymic Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, was a member of a wealthy family of wool merchants in Renaissance Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. He held political posts under Cosimo and Lorenzo de' Medici, but is principally remembered for building Palazzo Rucellai and the Rucellai Sepulchre, for his patronage of the marble façade of the church of Santa Maria Novella, and as author of an important Zibaldone. He was the father of Bernardo Rucellai (1448–1514) and grandfather of Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai (1475–1525).