Answer:
Together with Brunelleschi, Alberti is the great architect of the Italian Quattrocento, both in terms of construction and theory, working in various Italian courts (Mantua, Rimini), including Florence (Palazzo Rucellai). His figure, concerned with multiple facets, faithfully represents the typical humanist of the period.
Both in his treatises and in his buildings we find a profound study of the classical world from which he will extract constructive motifs (such as the idea of a triumphal arch for the main door) which he relates through another classical formula, the idea of harmony that he will achieve through the module, a measure that, through mathematics, will serve to design the entire work.
All this results in a rational and anthropocentric style (although Christian, being a church) that tries to renew the Gothic tradition by turning its eyes to the classical world and trying to create a whole different way of understanding the world (based on reason much more than on feelings), much more optimistic within those Italian republics enriched by trade and run by bankers.
The façade serves as a screen for the Gothic work, respecting its idea of three naves, with the central one being higher and illuminated by the oculus
Its relationship with the environment is mainly through the polychrome that was so typical of the Florentine area.
Both the idea of harmony that dominates the whole and the use of classical elements (pediments, orders, oculi...) place this work in the first Renaissance (Quattrocento), still with gothic memories in the lower part.
