Very few loggias were erected or rebuilt in the fifteenth
century. The Medici loggia is perfectly inserted into the general
design of the facade. The Rucellai loggia, opposite the palace,
has round arches and, for the first time in a loggia, columns
(Corinthian). Perhaps the Palagetto Alberti (later Corsi, then
Horne) also had a corner loggia before it was remodeled by the
Corsi. The patrician loggia gradually lost its function in the
course of the century as festivals and ceremonies became more
private in character. In the early sixteenth century the Medici
had closed their loggia with Michelangelo's 'kneeling' windows.
Gradually the medieval loggias scattered here and there in the
medieval fabric of the urban center were also closed and then
torn down when the area was demolished at the end of the
nineteenth century.
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