Download The Medicis and the Italian Renaissance

The Medicis and the Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance was a time of rebirth. The era was exemplified by
experimentation in government, art, psychology and sociology. Florence was the
city at the forefront of all of these developments. An example of Florence’s
influence on the Renaissance and its city-state neighbors is the florin, Florence’s
minted coinage that became the standard currency across all of Europe.
At the birth of Florence as an Italian Renaissance city-state is the medieval
papacy. The Holy Roman Empire was constantly at war with the papacy,
weakening its hold upon the regions that it governed. Slowly, Florence and other
urban centers in Italy formed autonomous city-states that closely resembled
those of the ancient Greeks. These city-states were rich urban centers whose
elite class had the money, freedom and time to explore the arts.
Young Florence was ruled by rich merchants and aristocracy. The Italian citystates were not only plagued by internal battle between the classes, but also
between each other. City-states waged wars against each other to gain control of
the Mediterranean. It was these battles that spawned experimentation in
government. The Florentines explored republicanism and humanism.
Humanism played a large role in the Florentine republic. It was an intellectual
movement that strongly influenced the psychology of early Florentine
government. The movement encompassed man and how he related to the world.
Gone were the days of medieval fate-driven existence. Humans suddenly awoke
to a new world where the future wasn’t written for them. People no longer saw
involvement in the arts as blasphemous, nor did they see education as only
something limited to the clergy. Petrarch, often considered to be one of the
fathers of Humanism, established the belief that humanism was a civic duty.
Humanism and higher philosophy concerned not only the government officials,
but also the general populace. In this way, Florence’s emphasis on humanism as
a civic duty is much like Greece’s emphasis on the polis as an ideal way of life.
By the middle of the fifteenth century, Florence was a thriving city-state with a
population of 60,000. Its ruling body consisted mainly of twelve rich merchant
guilds that congregated at the Palazzo Vecchio to vote and discuss city issues.
Florence found its wealth in commerce and industry, not in land holdings as
earlier societies had. The Florentine republic discovered techniques that are
characteristic of modern diplomacy, such as the establishment of embassies,
intelligence reports, balance of power and alliances with other city-states. The
most famous of these alliances was the Peace of Lodi, established in part by a
then rich Florentine banker, Cosimo Medici. The Peace of Lodi successfully
stopped the constant warring between city-states, establishing a peace that
lasted until the invasion of King Charles VIII.
Boiling under the surface were the condottieri, despotic rulers, who sought to
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take control of the young city-states and re-establish one-man rule. Out of all of
the powerful Italian city-states, Florence was one that held out the longest. But
even Florence fell to despotic rule, eventually, with the rise of the Medici family.
The Medici family rule effectively began with Cosimo Medici who took over his
father’s bank in 1429. Within five years, he gained significant political power in
Florence, but it wasn’t until his grandson, Lorenzo, destroyed the Florentine
republican constitution in 1480 that the Medici family rule was solidified. The
Medici family established a hereditary monarchy in Florence, the successors of
Lorenzo having ruled until they were kicked out of Florence by Girolamo
Savonarola in 1494.
The Medici family contributed to Florence in many ways. With the rise of a
hereditary monarchy came a change in public philosophy. No longer considered
a civic duty, humanism became a movement that applied to aristocrats the royal
family. With ruling power out of the hands of the public, it was now the sole duty
of the ruling class to live up to humanist ideals of morality, ethics and learning.
Florence was a clear leader in all realms of Renaissance art, including sculpture,
architecture and painting. The city-state gave birth to such names as
Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael Santi. At the root of Renaissance art was
the rejection of medieval Gothic art and the rebirth of ancient Grecian art.
Medieval art was concerned with somber spiritual themes, and while
Renaissance art was still concerned with the spiritual aspect of things, it
expressed a sense of control over one’s own destiny that medieval art did not
have. In this way, humanism pervaded Renaissance art. This new art form was
called the International Style.
Filippo Brunellesci led the Florentine classical revival. He was an architect who
successfully developed the use of perspective in art and explained it in
mathematical terms. He is known for his work on the Bapistry doors, as well as
his crucifix that resides in St. Maria Novella. Leonardo da Vinci, a late
Renaissance artist, is most commonly known for the Mona Lisa, but he was also
an engineer and a scientist. Although he was not born in Florence, he contributed
to Florentine art and life. It was in Florence that Leonardo began his
apprenticeship in 1466 with Andrea del Verrocchio. He went on to travel
throughout the Italian city-states, spreading his knowledge of human anatomy,
mechanics, engineering and, of course, art. The Florentine artists of the
Renaissance were experimentalists in every sense of the word. They
personalized art, and sought to explain it scientifically.
Florence was a shining example of the best of the Italian Renaissance. In politics
Florence thrived, fostering new intellectual movements, such as humanism, as
well as experimentation in governmental administration. Much of modern
government and society stands on the shoulders of Florentine giants. The strong
rule of the Medici family kept Florence in the forefront of the Renaissance, and
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established a peace between the city-states that lasted over 40 years. Florence
excelled artistically, as well. Well-known artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci and
Raphael Santi, found their footing as Florentine apprentices. Sculptors and
architects, such as Filippo Brunellesci, gave to the world beautiful pieces of art
that stand to this day, a tribute to their skill and craftsmanship. Florence was the
epitome of Italian Renaissance glory.
Timeline

1252 - Minting of the first gold florin

1299 - Palazzo Vecchio was built. The Palazzo Vecchio was
the home of the ruling guilds of early Florence.

1350 – Italian Renaissance begins

1378 - Revolt of the Ciompi (wool-workers) in Florence. An example of the
lower class wishing to take part in Florentine government.

1397 - Giovanni de Medici moves to Florence, and begins to take part in
Florentine public life.

1401 – Filippo Brunellesci and Ghiberti win the rights to sculpt the
northern doors of the Bapistry, a Florentine church. They take 28 years to
complete them.

1429 - Cosimo de Medici takes over his father's bank, and within five
years has political control over Florence.

1453 - Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks, sending many Greeks,
and their influential art, to the Italian city-states.

1454 - Peace of Lodi was created mainly through the efforts of Cosimo
Medici. The Peace of Lodi effectively ended warring between the citystates for the next 40 years.

1464 - Lorenzo de Medici ascends to power in Florence

1466 - Leonardo da Vinci begins his apprenticeship in Florence

1480 - Lorenzo de Medici completes the destruction of the Florentine
republican constitution, signaling the complete triumph of despotic rule
over Florence
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
1486 - Pico publishes his collection of 900 treatises, and is declared a
heretic by the Catholic Church. Lorenzo de Medici saves him from death.

1494 - The Medici family is kicked out of Florence by Girolamo
Savonarola.
The French King Charles VIII took Florence without a single shot, and
briefly occupied it before returning to France.

1513 - The Florentine, Machiavelli, wrote The Prince.

May 6, 1527 - Rome is sacked by the Spanish imperial army, an event
that signifies the downfall of the Renaissance.

1600 – Italian Renaissance Ends
Key Innovations and Artists of the Italian
Renaissance
I have superimposed perspective lines illustrating the use of 1-point linear perspective in
"View of an Ideal City", a painting by Piero della Francesca. The point of convergence is
called the vanishing point.
The Italian Renaissance is considered by historians the beginning of the modern
age. The name itself literally means "rebirth", an accurate description of this
period of innovation in both the sciences and the arts. The literary arts were also
given much attention, as Renaissance thinkers turned to the lost texts of the
ancient world for new understanding. This renewed interest in history, literature,
and the arts was the birth of a whole new way of thinking, one which centered on
the world of mankind as much as a concern for the hereafter (which was the sole
concern of medieval man). This new way of thinking is called humanism, tracing
back to the Greek concept of "man as the measure of all things". With the
invention of movable type during the Renaissance, new ideas and ancient
scholarship spread faster than ever before.
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The general dates given for the Renaissance period are 1400-1550, and its birthplace was unmistakably Florence, a prosperous merchant town in Italy . It was
necessary that the cultivation of great ideas and art would begin in a center of
great wealth... for it required such prosperity to fund the building of great
cathedrals which were elaborately decorated by the best artists that the region
had to offer. Wealthy citizens often donated their money for specific art
commissions, for both religious and secular projects. The greatest art patrons in
Florence were the Medici family, who decorated their city with sculptures brought
from Greece and Rome, commissioned artists and architects to create, and who
also funded the first universities.
The most obvious changes during Renaissance times are seen in the paintings
and sculptures. Though they continued the medieval tradition of using religious
subjects, illustrating stories from the Bible, they combined this interest with
classical ideals of the human figure and an increased interest in depicting nature.
Secular works were also popular, often inspired from Greek and Roman
mythology. Artists began to experiment for the first time with oil-based paints,
mixing powdered pigments with linseed oil (gradually abandoning the Medieval
technique of egg tempera). The paints dried slowly, and remained workable for a
few months. The fresco technique was employed on plaster walls (reaching
perfection with artists such as Michelangelo). Sculpture began to be conceived
"in the round", instead of as relief decorations on cathedrals. Perspective and
light were also introduced into art, perfecting the sense of three-dimensional
reality. The artists of the Renaissance made such a dramatic impact in their
concept of space and form that they have changed the way we look at the world
for all time.
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