Created by Sarah Barton, July 2003
Assignment
What was significant
about the Medici family, and why were its members able to stay in
power for so long?
Overview
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 city-states 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 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 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
- 1480 - Lorenzo de
Medici completes the destruction of the Florentine republican
constitution, signaling the complete triumph of despotic rule
over Florence
- 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
Related
Sites
Renaissance - Focus on Florence
is a site by
the Annenberg/CPB foundation that focuses on the many aspects of
Renaissance Italy, such as trade and exploration. Part of the
site explores Florence, individually. Family
Portrait: The
Medici of Florence follows the
Medici bloodline from Giovanni to Anna Maria Luisa, the last of
the Medici. This
website shows a family tree of the Medicis.
Renaissance
Humanism is a lecture on the social movement of the
same name which was very prominent during that time. A
comprehensive site on Italian Renaissance art is The Italian
Renaissance Art Project , a database of images and
biographies of major artists. Also focusing on art, Leonardo da
Vinci is a very fun site that has very detailed
information on da Vinci's life.
This section of
The Florentine Chronicle has the text of a primary
source from 1348 that describes the effects of the Bubonic Plague
on Florence.
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Recommended
Books
There are a plethora of books
published on the Italian Renaissance and Florence. A great book
on all aspects of Florence and the Italian Renaissance, including
politics and the church, is Gene Adam Brucker,
Renaissance Florence (1983). Christopher Hibbert,
The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (1999),
follows the lives of the Medici family, a dynasty of Florentine
rulers during the Renaissance. David Klapisch-Zuber,
Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy
(1987), is a detailed look into the daily life of Renaissance
families. Two books that explore the art of Renaissance Florence
exclusively are Elizabeth Pilliod, Pontormo, Bronzino,
and Allori: A Geneaology of Florentine Art (2001) and
Antonio Paolucci, The Origins of Renaissance Art: The
Baptistery Doors, Florence (1996).
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