The Renaissance turned back to the principles of antiquity, which posited harmony as the supreme principle of design. Buildings and music were to be made proportionate again with the assistance of mathematics.
Leading architects developed the ancient rules of Pythagoras into a precise theory of numbers with ideal proportions that were also the ancient basis of the intervals of notes.
They transferred
relationships of 1:4
or 1:5 to the distances
between columns or
to the height of spaces –
and in this way created
architecture that
followed fundamental
rules of music.
In 1452 at Palazzo Ruccellai in Florence, architect Leon Battista Alberti incorporated into the facade design structures and proportions, which we consider harmonious, but also others, that have a dissonant effect.