Ospedale degli Innocenti
Filippo Brunelleschi · Florence, Italy · 1445
The Ospedale degli Innocenti is a landmark of early Renaissance civic architecture and was built to care for abandoned children. Brunelleschi's nine-bay loggia establishes a calm module of round arches, Corinthian columns and square vaults along Piazza Santissima Annunziata. The clear proportional system and restrained contrast of gray stone with pale walls became a model for later Florentine buildings, while Andrea della Robbia's glazed terracotta infants made the institution legible to the city. Behind the façade, courtyards and later wings supported a changing social program. The date marks completion of the initial hospital campaign; the institution and museum occupy a complex altered over centuries.