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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75*21,175

deCHABY, Darrel Eugene, 1930* FLORENCE IN TOE QUATTROCENTO.

Hie American University, Ph.D., 1975 Literature, general

Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan48ioe

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. FLORENCE IN THE QUATTROCENTO

by

Darrel E. deChaby

Submitted to the

Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences

of The American University

in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree

of

Doctor of Philosophy

in

Literature

Chairmant, iftm Dean of the College

Dates 3.3

1975

The American University

Washington, D. C.

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SO$Z

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents

Florence xn the Quattrocento Page 1

Footnotes Paget 65

Bibliography Page 68

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Florence in the Quattrocento

This is Florence. Giotto's belltower (des. 1334), and

Brunelleschi's Duomo (des. 1419), the dome of the Cathedral

of Florence, have stood for more than 500 years as symbols

of the optimism, the vitality, the creativity of the Renais­

sance and of this Italian city. Man in this time thought

his potentialities to have no limit.

(Duomo, doseup)

Whatever seeds each man cultivates will grow to maturity and bear him their own fruit. If they be vegetative, he will be like a plant. If sensitive, he will become brutish. If rationale he will grow into a heavenly being. If intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God.

(Michelangelo, "Creation of Adam," detail)

We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer. Thou shalt have the power to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish. Thou shalt have the power, out of thy soul's judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine.

("Creation of Adam," detail)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. O supreme generosity of God the Father, o highest and most marvelous felicity of man! To him it is granted to have whatever he chooses, to be whatever he wills. Beasts as soon as they are born . . . bring with them from their mother’s womb all they will ever possess. Spiritual beings, either from the beginning or soon thereafter, become what they are to be for ever and ever. On man when he came into life the Father conferred the seeds of all kinds and the germs of every way of life. 1

(^Creation of Adam," full view)

So wrote the great humanist Count Giovanni Pico della

Mirandola in his famous oration "On the Dignity of Man,"

composed in i486.

(Botticelli, "Portrait of Man with a Medal")

Man could be whatever he willed himself to be. He could

free himself from a confining life like a statue? emerg­

ing from marble. So said Florentine humanists during the

Renaissance.

(Michelangelo, "The Slave")

Wallace K. Ferguson has written that the "cultural

vitality of the Renaissance • • • drew its positive in­

spiration from the intellectual excitement caused by the

challenge of new conditions of life, of new potentialities

in every field of culture, and in general, of a sense of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 .

2 breaking new ground and of scanning ever-widening horizons.”

This describes the spirit of the Renaissance in Florence.

(Sano di Pietro, "Merchants**)

Renaissance. The word means rebirth. But rebirth of

what? What was the Renaissance? What made it possible? The

nineteenth century French critic and historian H.A. Taine pro­

pounded the theory that great cultural creativity could be

explained by three factors* race, milieu, and moment.

Let us modify Taine*s theory and say that the Renaissance

was possible because of a combination of men, milieu and

moment.

(Gozzoli, "Procession of the Magi")

The Renaissance men who built, painted, sculpted,

wrote some of the supreme artistic masterpieces of their

age, or of any other, manifested a spirit of creativity

which is always present in man but is not always released

in him. If man could be what he willed himself to be,

these men willed that cultural rebirth which was the

Renaissance.

(Carpaccio, "Portrait of a Man with a Red Hat")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The milieu* the place* must be right for rebirth ~

and the place often found to be the matrix of the Italian

Renaissance was Florence* a medium-sized Tuscan town some­

times called "Athens on the Arno" for the river on whose

banxs it was built and for the cultural florescence which

it came to represent! Florence* whose very name means

"city of flowers."

(Anon.* "Map of the Chain")

The moment* the time* must be right for rebirth.

Near the end of the fourteenth century in Florence events

occurred which some scholars suggest caused the moment of

the Renaissance in Italy to be. These were dramatic events*

a time of crisis for Florence.

(Leonardo* "Study of Five Heads")

It has been said that the Renaissance was a period

of "Political* economic* social* moral* intellectual*

religious* and aesthetic crises."3 Florence experienced

all these during her history.

(Raphael* "Fire in the Borgo")

But there was a form of crisis which* about the year

1400* according to Renaissance historian Hans Baron* set

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in motion a chain reaction which gave rise to the full

flowering of the Renaissance. That crisis was political —

the threat of invasion and subjugation of Florence by

Milan in northern Italy.

(Anon., "Armato")

When that crisis was successfully met by the Florentines

and comparative political stability established and main­

tained for a period of more than ninety years, the moment

was right for cultural rebirth.

(Masaccio, "Firenze, Carmine")

For with that political stability came economic and

social stability. These in their turn made it possible

for the great geniuses of the time, men who were born in

or who came to Florence, to create, to apply themselves

to intellectual and aesthetic pursuits.

(Anon., "Diploma Awarded to Honophrius de Honophriis")

After nearly a century of intense creativity, Flor­

ence again faced a political crisis, this time not merely

the threat of invasion but actual invasion by the great

armies of Louis VIII of France in 1494. This time the

Florentines did not, could not resist these foreign in-

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. vasions because they were not politically united and the

invasions of the French armies precipitated a series of

foreign invasions which were to plague Italy for nearly

400 years.

(Anon., "Battle Scene")

The effect of this second political crisis was to neutral­

ize the Renaissance in Florence — but the impulse of the

Renaissance was now so strong that it spread throughout

Europe in the ensuing decades. We may say that a political

crisis was one of the primary elements that caused the Ren­

aissance in Florence and that another political crisis

nearly 100 years later caused that Renaissance optimism,

vitality and creativity of which we spoke to dwindle in

Florence.

(Masaccio, "Firenze, Carmine")

This, then, is the story of one of the most brilliant

and productive periods in the history of man — an age

rivaled in creative output, in architectural, sculptured,

painted, and literary masterpieces by few other cultures.

This is the period of 1400 to 1500, the fifteenth century

in Florence — a time called the Quattrocento.

(Attr. Leonardo, "Antirguarie prospetiche Romaine")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. One of the earliest and greatest historians of this

period was Niccolo Machiavelli, a Florentine civic human­

ist vho vas bora in 1469 and died in 1527. Schooled in

the classics, Machiavelli vas both a creative literary

artist in many forms and a man deeply involved in the

affairs of his city state* He vas a nev type of Renais­

sance man, a civic humanist* Of this type ve shall say

more later*

(Santi de Tito, ••Portrait of Machiavelli*’)

Machiavelli's alert eyes and quick intelligence sav

and absorbed much* In his prime he vas second secretary

to the Florentine Chancery and therefore in the very midst

of the political, social, and economic affairs of Florence

and of Italy, some of vhich he helped to shape*

("Portrait of Machiavelli,Hcloseup)

Machihvelli's History of Florence, vritten betveen

1520 and 1525, attempts to describe the major events that

occurred in this city from the decline of the Raman Empire

until the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1492* He did

not have the advantage of modem scholarly research and the

first thousand years of his history are necessarily sketchy,

but as Machiavelli drev nearer his ovn time his accounts

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. became fuller and more factual and contain many shrewd and

enduring observations of the Quattrocento and of the men

who shaped its events.

(Machiavelli, History of Florence)

In order to understand the full flowering of the Renais­

sance in the fifteenth century and the role that crisis play­

ed in that flowering, we shall have to sketch, rapidly, some

of the major political and cultural events of the fourteenth

century.

(George Braun, Civitates orbis terrarum)

Machiavelli tells us, and modem scholars confirm, that

the fourteenth century in Florence was a time of internal

factions, quarrels, and strife, a time of murder and exile,

alarums and excursions and family and party feuds of the

type familiar to anyone who has read or seen Shakespeare's

Romeo and Juliett

Two households, both alike in dignity • • •

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, 4 Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

(Mantegna,"Ludovico Gonzago and His Court")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The main political parties of the time were the Ghib-

ellines, aristocratic and sympathetic to the monarchy, and

the Guelphs, popular and favoring the papacy. The Montechi,

or Montagues, of Shakespeare*s play, were Ghibelline and

the Capalletti, or Capulets, were Guelph.

(Cronica di G, Villani, "Guelphs and Ghibellines")

Later these parties broke down into further factions

that came to be called the Blacks and the Whites — the

former the party of the nobility and the latter the party

of the rising middle class. Between them these parties and

their factions kept Florence and Italy in a condition of

civil strife for many decades.

(Anon., "Coats of Arms")

Florence was beset by other problems as well. Italy

experienced economic reversals and business depressions* dur­

ing the 1340's} the Black Death struck Florence, decimating

her population, in 1348. The papacy fled Rome in 1305 and

settled at Avignon in France in the "Babylonian Captivity,"

not to return to Rome until 1371. There was continual war­

fare among neighboring states. It was a time of great

stress and confusion.

(Orcagna, "Trionfo della Morte")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Out of this confusion and stress some artistic and

literary masterpieces miraculously emerged* But the master­

pieces in sculpture, painting and architecture were mainly

sacred in nature and small in number# Progress in the

plastic arts was slow; artists had not yet begun to study

and emulate the masters of the past.

(Mantegna, "Dead Christ")

In literature the expressions were mainly God-center­

ed and medieval. The various crises of the time in this

milieu worked as a brake on cultural expressions, especially

of a secular nature — and it is these secular expres­

sions which, addled to the sacred ones, make the full flower­

ing of the Renaissance of the fifteenth century.

(Cloister of San Marco)

Dante (1265-1321) died in exile in 1321, having com­

pleted three years before his death the Divine Comedy.

Dante had been exiled as a leader, of the White party and

forbidden on pain of death by burning ever to return to

Florence.

(School of Florence, "Allegorical Portrait of Dante")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Divine Comedy, written in the vernacular in Dante's

native Tuscan dialect, has been called "a poem of such sculp­

tured power that no man since has equaled it • • • the poem

in which all the terror, hope, and pilgrimage of the medie­

val spirit found voice, symbol and form.**5

(G. Stradano, "Inferno di Dante”)

In the same year, 1302, that Dante had been exiled

from Florence, Petrarch's father, like Dante a member of

the White party, together with his young wife, had also

been banished and had fled to Arezzo south of Florence.

There, in 1304, Francesco Petrarch was born. His family

later followed the papacy to Avignon.

(Fillipo Lippi, "Porte de Spn Frediano")

Petrarch has been called "the first modern man" for

having "inaugurated in the Latin West a feeling for an­

cient culture."6 Of him it has been written that "fcy

common consent he was the first humanist, the first writer

to express with clarity and force the right of man to con­

cern himself with his life, to enjoy and augment its beaut­

ies, and to labor tc deserve well of posterity. He was

the Father of the Renaissance."7

(Ghirlandaio, "Petrarch")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Petrarch is most famous for his sonnets and other

poems, 207 of which were written in the Tuscan dialect

over a period of twenty-one years, most as exaltations

of the famous Laura, a woman whom he adored, but always

from afar#

(Ghirlandaio, "Laura")

Collected as Canzoniere or Sonqbooks. they were

the rage of Italy for the sublety of their emotions and

the beauty of their language# Petrarch was crowned poet

laureate at Rome in 1341. On July 20, 1374, on his

seventieth birthday, he died full of honors after many

wanderings#

(Newberry Library Manuscript, Canzoniere)

Petrarch was survived by one year by his famous

disciple Giovanni Boccaccio, who was born in Paris in

1313, the son of a Florentine merchant and a French

mother# Boccaccio settled in Florence in 1340# In

1348, shortly after the Black Death swept through the

city and through all of Europe, he composed his master­

piece, the Decameron, in the vernacular#

(Andrea del Castagno, "Boccaccio")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Petrarch had studied Greek and he urged Boccaccio to

master the language* Boccaccio devoted himself to promot­

ing knowledge of Greek literature. He commissioned the

translation of Homer*s Iliad and Odyssey from Greek into

Latin. These were the only Latin translations of Homer

known to Europe in the fourteenth century.

(Newberry Library Manuscript, the Decameron)

We have seen Giotto's campanile, the belltower, de­

signed in 1334 and completed in 1359. It vas built de­

liberately to surpass anything done by the ancient Greeks

and Romans, but for all these aspirations it is essential­

ly Gothic in spirit and design, just as Dante was essentially

a medieval poet.

(Giotto. Belltower)

Giotto, born in 1276 and died in 1337, was a painter

and sculptor as well as an architect. Not until Michel­

angelo two centuries later was Florence to foster a genius

who was as gifted as Giotto in all three arts. But Dante

and Giotto were transitional figures.

(Anon,,"Portrait of Giotto**)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Petrarch and Boccaccio were classical humanists. Such

men tended to be scholars who could read Greek and Latin*

who had* or could attract, the financial resources to collect

manuscripts and had the time to translate the classics for

their mutual edification and delight. Classical humanism

was basically the occupation of what might be called an in­

tellectual elite.

(Newberry Library Manuscript, Lexicon qraeco-latinum)

Near the end of the Trecento, the fourteenth century,

a new type of humanism emerged in Florence — civic human­

ism. For all practical purposes, both classical and civic

humanism began in Florence. But though classical humanism

took the form of the vita contemplativa. a life of study

and contemplation, civic humanism took the form of the vita

activa, a life of action and the application of the lessons

of the past to civic and social life. This vita activa

was one of the primary impulses for the creativity of the

Renaissance. Civic humanism evolved from classical humanism

for a very good reason.

(Carpaccio, "Awivo degli ambasciatore parte destra")

Hans earon tells us that at the end of the fourteenth

century there was "an atmosphere of artificiality in which

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the only thing that counted was imitation of the ancients.

• • • • Cultivated citizens came to disdain the age and

society in which they lived % they neglected their civic

duties. . . . A militant kind of classicism was diverting a educated men from participating in communal life." Flor­

ence was in grave danger of losing the cultural initiative

begun in literature by Dante (and in painting, architec­

ture and sculpture by Giotto) and continued by Petrarch

and Boccaccio.

(Carpaccio,“Cardinal Bessarian")

Two of the men most representative of civic humanism in

the early years of the Renaissance were Coluccio Salutati

(1330-1406) and Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444). Salutati be­

came executive secretary or Chancellor to the Florentine

Republic in 1375, the year of Boccaccio's death, and held

that office until his death. Bruni was Chancellor to the

Florentine Republic from 1427 until his death.

(Signorelli, "Tegola con l'autoritratti e N. Vitelli")

Both of these men combined an education and interest

in the classics with service to the Florentine city-state

They consciously applied the lessons of the past, those

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. derived from a keen interest in literary history, to the

political and social life of Florence*

(Raphael, "School of Athens," detail)

Through their readings of classical writers like

Aristotle and Cicero, men like Salutati and Bruni began

first to perceive and then to promulgate the idea of civic

involvement as well as classical education as the proper

attributes of the ideal citizen.

("School of Athens," full view)

With them humanism moved from the study to the Chancery,

from the ivory tower to city hall. The effect on the

cultural life of Florence was profound. Baron has de­

scribed the conditions out of which civic humanism grew.

The actual catalyst of that growth, as we have seen, vas

the threat of invasion of Florence by neighboring Milan.

(Leonardo, "Mappa della Toscana")

There were five major centers of political power in

Italy at the beginning of the fourteenth centuryt Milan,

a tyranny; Florence and Venice, both republics; the pon­

tifical states of Rome; and the Kingdom of Naples, a monarchy.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 17.

("Mappa della Toscana," detail)

Florence, a republic with an elective form of govern­

ment, vas surrounded by totalitarian governments — the

tyranny of Milan in the north and the monarchy of Naples in

the south. In 1389, Giangaleazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, a

tyrant who Machiavelli tells us believed "he could become

King of Italy by force as he had become Duke of Milan by

trickery,"*0 began a policy of territorial expansion in

northern Italy.

(Bellini, "Portrait of a Condottiere")

Florence, under threat, tried to enlist the support of

Venice, the only other republic in Italy, in order to con­

tain Milan. Venice was not interested, even in her own

behalf. Florence faced Milan alone.

(Agostini, "Le Successi Bellici")

She was "to confront one of those challenges of history

in which a nation, facing eclipse or regeneration, has to

prove its worth in a fight for survival."11 There ensued

a time of great political confusion, even for Italy, a time

of leagues and skirmishes, of political and martial stress.

Milan raided deep into Florentine territory.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Florence resisted bravely. The internal conflicts

which had beset the city for generations were all but for­

gotten in the interest of common defense against the threat

of Milan. Then a miracle happened. Machiavelli tells us

that "when the Duke had taken Bologna. Pisa. Perugia, and

Siena, and prepared the crown with which he was to be crown- 12 ed King of Italy in Florence, he died."

(Di Giovanni, "Scena di Torneo")

Visconti died of the plague in 1402. But the threat

of Milanese invasion helped to stimulate civic humanists

like Salutati, Bruni and others, men who because of their

positions in the Florentine Chancery were at the very heart

of civic affairs, to encourage by their actions and writings

new and culturally liberating ideas.

(Masaccio, "Raising of the Son of Theophilus")

These included the rethinking of the heritage of Florence

as a republic, the civic uses to which the study of the clas­

sics could be put, a revival of the use of the vernacular

for literary creativity, and new ideas about the amassing

and spending of private wealth for civic as well as sacred

works of art.

(Anon., "Procession of San Giovanni's Day")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 19,

These reconsiderations were some of the elements

which composed the milieu in which the moment of the Ren­

aissance in Florence could flourish. Salutati. Bruni

and others were men who consciously, deliberately, set

about to create that milieu. Early in the Quattrocento

they asserted that literature and the arts could only

flourish in a republic — and that Florence had been a

republic from her earliest founding.

(•^Procession of San G iovannis Day," detail)

Florentines had not always had this attitude about

themselves. Tradition had it that Florence had been founded

by Caesar's legions; during the Middle Ages Caesar had

been revered. Any suggestion that he had been a tyrant

or an imperialist was immediately struck down.

(Pisano, "La Lupa")

The medieval Dante, in the Inferno, had consigned

Brutus and Cassius to Hell, along with Judas Iscariot,

the betrayer of Christ, for their complicity in the assas­

sination of Caesar.

(Giotto, "Giudizio finale," detail)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20.

About the time of their lonely stand against Vis­

conti. a man whose imperialistic ambitions were super­

ficially not unlike those of Caesar. Florentines took a

new view of Caesar in order to justify that stand. They

began to see him as a tyrant and Brutus and Cassius as

deliverers from tyranny.

(Michelangelo. "Brutus")

These views were promulgated, among other places,

in the Laudatio Florentinai Urbus — Praise of Florence —

written about the beginning of the fourteenth century by

Bruni. The Laudatio contains a classically-grounded

conviction of the superiority of republicanism over tyran­

ny. of a preference for Republican Rome over Imperial Rome.

Bruni went so far as to identify the Ghibelline party of

his own day with Roman tyranny and the Guelph party with

Roman republicanism.

(Anon., "Lecturer and Students")

Bruni was not alone in these patriotic statements;

they were echoed by Salutati, among others. In 1403,

Salutati, then chancellor of Florence, published a politi­

cal pamphlet, Invective Against Antonio Loschi.

Loschi, a chancery-humanist who was Salutati's counter-

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. part in Milan* had impugned not only Florence's recent

resistance to Milan but also her claim to Roman republic­

anism*

(Leonardo,"Study of Two Heads")

Salutati's answer to Loschi was that Florence had been

founded by Sulla* a Roman general* at the beginning of the

first century B.C.* decades before Caesar's monarchy. She

had, therefore, been a republic from the very beginning*

These references of Bruni and Salutati to Roman history with

reference to the founding and recent defense of Florence were

patriotism extolled and paternity rationalized with classical

footnotes* Bruni* Salutati and others were consciously mak­

ing a political and cultural milieu for the Renaissance*

(de Maiano* "Bust of Pietro Mellini")

In 1427* Bruni* who became in that year Chancellor

of the Florentine Republic* wrote a "Funeral Oration on

Nanni degli Strozzi," in imitation of the famous funeral

oration of Pericles* Bruni's oration is an extraordinary

document* It describes* as Pericles' oration had done*

the ideal citizen in the ideal republican state* This time

the orator speaks of Florence*

(Perugia, "Autoritratto")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Equal liberty exists for all • • • the hope of winning public honors and ascending is the same for all* provided they possess industry and natu­ ral gifts and lead a serious-minded and respected way of life) for our commonwealth requires of its citizens virtus and probitas, whoever has these qualifications is thought to be of sufficiently noble birth to participate in the government of the republic, • , •

(Pisano* "Schoolroom")

This* then* is true liberty* this equality in a commonwealths not to have to fear violence or wrong-doing from anybody* and to enjoy equality among citizens before the law and in the partici­ pation in public office* • • , But now it is mar­ velous to see how powerful access to public office* once it is offered to a free people* proves to be in awakening the talents of citizens.

(Pisano* "Weaving")

For when men are given the hope of attaining honor in the state* they take courage and raise themselves to a higher plane; where they are de­ prived of that hope* they grow idle and lose their strength. Therefore* since such hope and opportun­ ity are held out in our commonwealth* we need not be surprised that talent and industry distinguish themselves in the highest degree.

(Pisano* "Metalworker")

Salutati spoke highly of Cicero because he had been

active in political life. By 1436, Dante* also a politi­

cal activist* "emerges in Bruni's Life as the complete

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. nan — father, citizen, poet in the vernacular, and phil­

osopher* As a young nan (says Bruni) he gave himself 'not

only to literature * * * but other liberal studies. But

for all this he did not shut himself up at ease, nor sever

himself from the world** And here let me say a word in

reproof of the many ignorant folk who suppose that no one

is a student except such as hide themselves away in soli­

tude and leisure* • • • A great and lofty genius has no 14 need of such inflictions,”

(Signorelli, "Dante”)

Clearly the man who was both a creative artist and

a man of action was becoming a Renaissance ideal* Nor

were Greek and Latin to be the only languages in which im­

portant statements could be made* The recent habit of think­

ing of the vernacular as second-rate was overturned* Along

with the reappraisal of their distant past among civic

humanists came a deepening appreciation of their recent

past, especially in literature*

(Mantegna, "Court of the Gonzagas")

There remains one more very important change in at­

titude to be documented in our appraisal of the changes,

the liberating changes, that took place in Florentine

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. values at the beginning of the fourteenth century — at­

titudes toward the amassing and spending of private wdalth

for the public good*

(Anon* miniature* ••Tribunal of the Signoria**)

For centuries the Bible had taughti HIf thou wilt be

perfect* go and sell that thou hast and follow me***15

And the Bible had admonished thati "It is easier for a

camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich

man to enter into the Kingdom of God*"16

(N* Perottus* "Regulae")

Florence* a deeply religious community* was by the begin­

ning of the fourteenth century a city of international

bankers and merchants* How could the amassing of great

fortunes be squared with these Christian teachings? One

way traditionally had been to go ahead and amass fortunes

through banking and trade and then to give those foftunes

finally to monasteries and churches*

(Giotto* "Madonna and Child")

This was nearly always done through the commissioning of

sacred architecture* painting and sculpture. The great

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 25.

sacred art of Florence often had about in an aura not only

of praise of God but of penitence for having ignored Chris­

tian teachings and made too much money.

(Cloister of San Marco)

Now, near the beginning of the fifteenth century, civic

humanists began to take the position that the possession

of great wealth, far from being a vice, vas an absolute

civic virtue for it gave one the means to contribute not

only to the beautification of a churbh but also to that of

the community. A subtle yet profound change had taken place.

(Anon.9 fifteenth century wedding chest, "Wed­ ding Guests")

It now became possible, indeed desirable, for a man

to give not only for the creation of sacred works of art

but also for secular works. And as the century progressed

it became seemly for a man to commission private dwellings

as well as religious ones — so long as he was not osten­

tatious about it.

(Piazza della Signoria)

This was an enormous stimulus to the art and artists of

Florence. The rationale was partly the desire to emulate

what the Greeks and Romans had done to beautify their cities

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and partly a general changing of attitudes towards religion*

Poggio Bracciolini, a civic humanist who became Chancellor

of the Florentine Republic in 1452, denounced lazy monks and

condoned hustling millionaires in his dialogue De Avaritia.

written in 1428-29t

(Leonardo,MStudy of Two Heads”)

One cannot tolerate the objections raised by hypo­ critical, parasitical and coarse men who are running after food under the cover of religion* These people do not work and take no pains and preach that others ought to seek poverty and despise earthly treasures!

(Anon,,”Fior de Virtu”)

We cannot build our cities with these pseudo-men who can afford to be lazy only because our labors keep them alive* • • • All splendor, all beauty, all charm would disappear from our cities. There would be no more temples, no more monuments and no more art.

(Gerini, "The Counting House”)

Our whole existence as well as that of the state would be disrupted if everyone endeavored solely to provide only for his own necessities* • • • For the commonwealth, money is the nerve of life and those who lust for money are its foundations, 1'

("Counting House,” closeup)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Because of these dramatic changes in Florentine values —

new attitudes towards humanism, patriotism, the use of the

vernacular in literature, and the amassing and dispensing

of private wealth — all brought about by civic humanists

as the result of the successful meeting of political crises,

a new type of citizen came into being*

(Anon.,"Two Venetian Men")

Typically he was a man schooled in the classics but a man

of action. He was patriotic but pragmatic; often he was

a man who amassed great fortunes out of the Florentine

economy and then spent that fortune for the beautification

of the city. This type of man was to be the indispensable

patron, the benefactor, of the arts and the humanites in

Florence in the Quattrocento.

(Anon.,"Mercanti")

A man was born in Florence in 1389 — the very year

in which Visconti, the Duke of Milan, began his territorial

expansions in Italy — who lived through the events and ex­

perienced the changes in attitude we have described and was

the epitome of the new type of citizen. He was a man who,

without political office or ambition, was yet the most im­

portant political figure in Florence from 1434 until his

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. death in 1464 and who, upon his death, was called "Father

of his Country.H That man was Cosimo de Medici.

(Gozzoli, "Procession of the Magi," detail)

The first Medici were probably physicians. Their name,

dei Medici, means "of the doctors." The family can be traced

back in Florentine histbry to the year 1201. Throughout the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries they gradually acquired

status as a commercial family. In 1397, the great inter­

national Medici bank was founded in Florence by Giovanni di

Bicci de Medici, Cosimo's father (1360-1428).

(Gozzoli, "Procession of the Magi," detail)

In that year, 1397, Manuel Chrysoloras, a Byzantine

scholar, came to Florence as envoy and was asked by the

University of Florence to join its faculty as Professor

of Greek Languages and Literature. Chrysoloras held this

post from 1397 to 1400. Among his pupils was Leonardo

Bruni. Chrysoloras' influence on classical humanism in

Florence was enormous. He began a cycle of translations and

explications of Greek classics that was to continue for

a century*

(Castagno, "Petrarch")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. From the ages of fourteen to seventeen, Cosimo studied

the classics with Roberto de Rozzi, who had been a pupil of

Chrysoloras, Young Cosimo was so interested in the classics

that he planned a trip to the Holy Land with Niccolo Nic-

coli (1364-1437), another ardent classicist, to search for

Greek manuscripts,

(Foppa, "Young Boy Reading Cicero")

Cosimo became a banker and merchant, like his father, but

he never lost his keen interest in the classics. Had he

gone to the Holy Land in search of manuscripts, Florence

might have gained another classical humanist, Cosimo did

not make the trip, and Florence gained its first great pa­

tron of the arts and hnmanities.

(Mantegna, "Family Scene")

Cosimo was already nearly forty when his father died,

leaving him one of the wealthiest men in Italy and in

Europe, The Medici empire — for it could only be called

that — was not limited now to banking. It included

farming, the manufacture and export of silk and woolen

cloth, and a varied shipping trade in items such as sugar,

almonds and spices with all of western Europe — from Spain

to Russia and from North Africa to the British Isles,

(Anon,, "View of Genoa")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Cosimo's liberality made many friends* especially a-

mong the lower and middle classes ~ but it also made power­

ful enemies* In 1433* Rinaldo degli Albizzi brought

charges of treason against Cosimo* The charges were false*

but Albizzi* leader of a family of wealthy wool merchants,

and a business rival of the Medici* had the legal mechanism

of Florence with him for the moment and it appeared that

Cosimo would be given the death sentence for his alleged

crimes*

(Uccello* "L'ebreo brucia L*Ostia")

Through the use of bribes* Cosimo had his death sen­

tence commuted to ten years' exile in Venetian territory*

There he took his brother and his sons* only to return

a year later when the government in Florence changed to

one in his favor and banished the accuser* Albizzi*

(Anon** “View of Venice**)

Machiavelli tells us thats

seldom has a citizen returning in triumph after a victory been received by his own city with a concourse of people and with a manifestation of good will as great as those marking his recept­ ion when he returned from exile* And everybody eagerly addressed him as a benefactor of his people and father of his native city* 18

(Vasari* "Cosimo de Medici Returns from Exile")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 1 .

This incident illustrates the point that feuds and

factions continued in Cosimo's time. His exile and re­

turn also marked a dramatic turning point in his life.

Never again did he allow his enemies to get the upper hand.

Though he avoided public office himself, he saw to it that

his friends held the important offices in Florence for the

next thirty years.

(Anon.. "Procession Scene")

Those thirty years, combined with the thirty years

years that Cosimo's son, Piero, and his grandson, Lorenzo

the Magnificent, rule in Florence, altogether two gener­

ations of comparative economic, social and political stabil­

ity, were to see the Renaissance in Florence attain its

highest development.

(Ghirlandaio, "Lorenzo the Magnificent")

Cosimo was involved in everything. When an ecumeni­

cal council was convened in Ferrara in 1438 to help close

a schism between the Greek and Roman churches that had

existed since 1054, he was keenly interested. Plague broke

out in Ferrara* Cosimo and his friends offered to pay the

expenses of the council if it would move to Florence.

(Leonardo, "San Girolamo")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. On February 15, 1439, the Greek Emperor John Paleologus

and a splendid retinue entered Florence. After much debate

and negotiation between the two churches, a decree of union

was drafted and signed.

(Gozzoli, HProcession of the Magi,*' detail)

Pope Eugenius gave the emperor the war materiel he needed

to resist the Turks, who were then threatening Constantinople.

The emperor, in gratitude to Cosimo, gave him permission to

allow commerce in his imperial ports.

(Gozzoli, "Procession of the Magi,"detail)

Constantinople fell in 1453 and union between the two

churches still has not taken place, but the prestige of Cosimo

and of Florence gained enormously because they were hosts

for the Council of Florence — an event which was watched

with interest all over Europe.

(Anon. , "Turk with Arrow")

And because the council and the Fall of Constantinople

brought more Greek scholars and manuscripts to Florence, the

importance for humanism was profound.

(Giotto, "Trial by Fire," detail)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. At the Council of Florence, a Greek scholar named

Gemistus Pletho gave the first series of lectures on the

writings of Plato to be heard in Italy, Pletho "kindled

an enthusiasm for the study of the Platonic dialogues and

initiated a controversy between the followers of Plato and

those of Aristotle which continued throughout the century

and served to crystallize the philosophic currents of the

age."19

(Anon.,-Petrarch-)

Cosimo, whose interest in the Greek classics had

never deserted him, determined to give his support to the

study of Plato. To that end he founded, in 1462, the Platon­

ic Academy in Florence to further translations and study of

the Greek philosopher.

(Anon.,-Teacher and Three Students-)

A brilliant young Florentine, Marsilio Ficino (1433-99),

was given a home, a library and an income by Cosimo and

urged to dedicate himself to the study of Plato. Ficino

translated Plato from Greek into Latin, completing all the

Dialogues by 1477. Without Cosimo's help Ficino would not

have had the resources to do this monumental work.

(Ghirlandaio, -Marsilio Ficino-)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. But Cosimo caused more than councils and academies*

His interest in the arts caused masterpieces of architecture,

sculpture, and painting to be created* Machiavelli tells us

that "Cosimo's * * * munificence appeared in the great number 20 of buildings he erected*"

(Gregorius de Gregoriis, "Fasciculus medicinae")

He was the first Florentine to serve the community through

buildings* For twenty years he built unceasingly* The Church

of San Lorenzo, designed in 1425 by Brunelleschi, was one of

Cosimo's most important commissions*

(Vasari, "Brunelleschi Presenting the Model of San Lorenzo")

Whereas the Gothic churches of Tuscany were often heavy,

many-colored and confused, Brunelleschi, in conscious emu­

lation of classical models, aimed for simplicity, for light­

ness of construction and delicacy of detail, "Thus Brunel­

leschi's position in the Renaissance is that of originator 21 and pioneer,"

(Church of San Lorenzo)

And Cosimo was no less enthusiastic about sculpture

and painting* He was one of the greatest patrons of the

brilliant Florentine sculptor, Donatello (1386-1466)*

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (Donatello, ••Profeta Abacuc")

Inspired by classical models, Donatello sculpted for

Cosimor about 1440, a bronze "David" which is the first im­

portant free-standing nude in European art since Roman times*

This "David" was also the first important statue of a secu­

lar nature to be made in Florence. Cosimo commissioned it to

stand in the courtyard of the Medici Palace* Here was a

break with tradition and a work of such quality that it is a

landmark in the history of civilization* With consummate

artistry, Donatello shows the body to be the ally, not the

prison, of the human spirit.

(Donatello, "David")

Donatello's "David," the rebirth of an old ideal, was

to become a symbol of the Renaissance and a symbol of Flor­

ence* David, naked and unafraid, fought and destroyed evil

forces of much greater strength through courage and resource­

fulness j Florence saw herself in the same role* In 1475,

Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo, was to commission from the

sculptor Verrocchio another bronze "David*" Michelangelo's

monumental "David," in marble, was completed in 1504*

(Michelangelo, "David")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The great Florentine painters Masaccio* Fra Angelico

and Fra Filippo Lippi all lived in Cosimo's time. Cosi-

mo almost certainly commissioned Fra Angelico to paint

the "Adoration of the Magi" on the vails of a cell in the

convent of San Marco which Cosimo occupied when he retreat­

ed there for stolen hours of religious contemplation.

(Fra Angelico* "Adoration of the Magi")

The Donatello "David," intensely secular and a

symbol of civic pride and patriotism, commissioned for

the courtyard of his home and

(Donatello* "David")

the "Adoration of the Magi," intensely religious in feel­

ing, commissioned for religious retreat, reveal the two

sides of Cosimo's character ~ and for that matter of

Florence and of the Renaissance. Sacred art prevailed,

but artists and their patrons were now capable of crieat-

ing and commissioning objects which were free from the in­

hibiting notion that art had to serve religion. This

freedom gave us some of the greatest treasures of the

Renaissance.

(Fra Angelico, "Adoration of the Magi")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Renaissance art received its liberation from ecclesi­

astical chains by a conscious copying of the ancients in

form, in style and subject matter. Encouraged by patrons

like Cosimo, the arts and the humanities received rejuvena­

tion from a studying of the ancients — Greek and Roman

models.

(Roman Forum, "Emperor Marcus Aurelius")

Brunelleschi had systematically studied Roman ruins.

The lessons he learned there made possible the construct­

ion of the Duomo and the design of San Lorenzo. Brunel­

leschi vas a friend and contemporary of Donatello.

(Brunelleschi, "Designs for the Duomo")

Together they labored side by side among the Roman ruins

to learn the secrets of classical architecture and sculp­

ture. Donatello and Brunelleschi vent to Rome together in

1403, the year that the crisis of the Milanese invasion

had been resolved by the death of Visconti.

(Roman Forum)

Because sculpture and architecture were done in durable

materials, they could be excavated and studied by artists

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. like Brunelleschi and Donatello* Very few paintings sur­

vived from ancient times* Florentine painting was the last

art to be influenced by classical models*

(Ruins of the Roman Forum)

Here* interestingly* the influence upon painting was

from a book* a classical text which gave some notion of the

phenomonon of perspective* The work was De Architectura,

On Architecture* by Vitruvius* who lived a quarter of a

century before Christ. In the 7th book of this work

Vitruvius wrote*

(Vitruvius, De Architectura)

Agatharcus* at the time when Aeschylus taught at Athens the rule of tragic poetry* was the first who contrived scenery, upon which subject he left a treatise. This led Democritus and Anaxagoras* who wrote thereon* to explain how the points of sight and distance ought to guide the lines* as in nature, to a center* so that by means of pictorial deception the real appearances of buildings appear on stage* painted on a flat vertical surface* they seem nevertheless to advance and recede.22

(Peruzzi* Prtospecttiva architecttonica)

Brunelleschi was a close student of the phenomenon of

perspective. The first painter to apply its principles was

Masaccio (1401-1529), who applied them "with a success that

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. opened the eyes of his generation and began a new era in

pictorial art • • • in an epochal masterpiece that made him 23 the teacher of three generations of painters.**

(Ghirlandaio, **Ritratto virile**)

Masaccio's masterpiece, "The Tribute Money#" painted

in 1427# is certainly one of the most influential of all

Florentine paintings. It employs artistic principles which

today we take for granted but which for the Florentines rep­

resented rediscoveries. Here Masaccio achieves perspect­

i v e in a small group of figures without the aid of archi­

tectural props.

(Masaccio, "The Tribute Money")

He uses shading to mold the faces of the figures and fore­

shortening to plant their feet firmly on the ground. As a

result of these techniques, Masaccio's figures possess

weight and volume# and therefore a new authority.

("The Tribute Money#" detail)

Florentines took great pride in the contribution they

were making in the arts. As early as 1436, Leon Battista

Alberti (1404-72), a keen student and practitioner of a

dozen arts and sciences — mathematics, mechanics, archi­

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. tecture, sculpture, painting, music, poetry, drama, philos­

ophy, and civil and cannon lav ~ wrote the first treatise

on the theory of painting. In it he proclaimed«

(Alberti, "Self Portrait")

When I compared the arts and letters of the ancients with those of modern times, I thought that nature, mistress of those arts, had grown worn out, and no longer produced the mighty and well contrived works with which, in her glorious youth, she had been so lavish. But • • . I have perceived in many modern artists — Fra Filippino Lippi, Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, Masaccio — a talent for all praise­ worthy arts which the most famous ancient cities did not excel, 24

(Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Sala del Cellini e dei Della Robbia)

During his lifetime, Cosimo saw — and immeasurably

assisted ~ the growth of both classical and civic humanism

and the development of the arts in Florence to a position

where they were the envy of the western world. As death ap­

proached, Cosimo, after a lifetime of sustained labor on be­

half of Florence, grew melancholy, "When his wife asked him

a few hours before his death why he kept his eyes shut, he 25 repliedt *to get them used to it,*"

(Filippino Lippi, "Ritratto di un vecchio")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Cosimo was succeeded by his Son Piero the Gouty, who

was afflicted with that same painful and crippling heredi­

tary illness that had plagued the Medici for generations.

He was fifty years old when his father died and survived

him by only five years. Piero, perhaps because of his de­

bilitating illness, seems to have lacked that enormous

grasp of things political, cultural, artistic and economic

that Cosimo had possessed. But great gifts in families

sometimes skip a generation, and so it was with the Medici.

Da Fiesole's portrait bust of Piero (1453) was the first

portrait bust made since the Fall of Rome.

(Da Fiesole, MPortrait Bust of Piero de Medici**)

In 1468, upon the death of his father, Lorenzo de

Medici, called in his lifetime Lorenzo the Magnificent,

was asked by the prominent citizens of Florence to be

leader of the state. He accepted the responsibility, and

during the next quarter of a century helped carry the Ren­

aissance to its apogee in Florence. When he came to power

he was twenty years old and the richest man in Florence ~

perhaps in all of Italy.

(Gozzoli, "Procession of the Magi," detail)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In 1478, he survived a conspiracy to Kill him and his brother

Giuliano. The double assassination was to take place in the

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore during the celebration of

high mass on Sunday, April 26. It was condoned by Pope Sixtus

IV and carried out by members of the Pazzi family, who, like

the Albizzi in Cosimo's time, were political and financial

rivals of the Medici. Giuliano was fatally stabbed.

(Signorelli, "Finimondo, particolare folia attrerrita a sinistra")

Florence was still a dangerous place, still not com­

pletely free of the feuds and factions that occasionally

erupted into violence. Yet, after he survived the Pazzi

Conspiracy, Lorenzo did his best to calm the mobs that pur<-

sued the conspirators through the streets, hanging and brutal­

izing them on his behalf. He was a man singularly devoid

of malice.

(Leonardo, "Bernardo Baroncelli impiccato")

Yet Lorenzo learned with the Pazzi Conspiracy what Cosimo

had learned with the Albizzi exile — never let rivals and

enemies into positions of power. His was, therefore, a one-

man rule in a city state which prided itself on being a

republic. This contradiction did not seem to bother the

Florentine citizens, for Lorenzo took care that his rule

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. was benign, not despotic, enlightened, not narrow. For

these reasons he enjoyed the respect, even the love, of

the majority of the citizens or Florence throughout his

lifetime,

(Gozzoli, "The Schoolroom")

As a boy Lorenzo had received the best classical ed­

ucation obtainable, as had his father and grandfather be­

fore him. He studied Greek with Johannes Argyropoulos

(1416-86), whom his grandfather had brought to Florence

to instruct its youth in Greek language and literature}

he studied Platonic philosophy wider Marsilio Ficino, with

whom Cosimo himself had studied Greek and Latin for twelve

years) Italian literature he studied under Christoforo

Landino (1424-1504). Ficino and Landino were on the

faculty of the University of Florence,

(Berruguete, "Duke Federico and his Son Guidobaldo")

Alberti wrote a Self Portrait of a Universal Man.

an autobiography in the third person, in which he portrays

himself as the ideal Renaissance man. But Alberti's words

serve as well to describe Lorenzot

In everything suitable to one born free and educated liberally, he was so trained from boyhood that among the leading young men of his age he was considered by no means the last. . . .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (Boltraffio, “Portrait of a Youth")

He was devoted to the knowledge of the most strange and difficult things. And he embraced with zeal and forethought everything which pertained to fame. • • • Letters, in which he delighted so greatly, seemed sometimes like flowering and richly fragrant buds, so that hunger or sleep could scarcely distract him from his books. . • .

(Newberry Library Manuscript. "Canzone a Ballo")

He played ball, hurled the javelin, ran. leaped, wrestled, and above all delighted in the steep ascent of mountains; he applied himself to all these things for the sake of health rather than sport or pleasure. . . . He could endure pain and cold and fear • • • showing by example that men can do anything with themselves if they will.26

(Newberry Library Manuscript. "Giuoco del Civettino")

A liberal education, the cultivation of the body and

the mind and the conviction that "men can do anything with

themselves if they will" — by Lorenzo's time these concepts

were firmly established as attributes of the ideal.the uni­

versal. the Renaissance man. and he strove to embody them

in his life.

(Verrocchio, "Portrait Bust of Lorenzo de Medici")

Lorenzo's love of literature — Greek, Latin and

Italian — was one of the greatest and most pervasive of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. his life* Unlike previous numbers of his family* he was

a literary artist of real stature whose works in various

forms fill a volume of nearly 700 pages. When he wrote/ he

expressed himself in Italian* Thus* by example* he helped to

revive a tradition of writing in the vernacular first estab­

lished by Dante* Petrarch and Boccaccio*

(Anon**"Street Scene with Lorenzo de Medici")

Lorenzo's writings anight be religious — he had im­

bibed a strong and enduring Catholicism from his pious

mother, Lucrezia — or they could be secular, even profane*

Lorenzo in a pious veins

(Botticelli* "Simonetta Vespucci")

*0 venerable* immense* eternal Light* who sees

Thyself in Thine own being* and lighteth the

splendor that shines on Thy ■Godhead!"

(Michelangelo* "Tutte le sculture")

Lorenzo in a lighter veins "And just as in the story of

Antaeus* by falling on the ground regains his strength* so 27 I*.the more I drink* the thirstier become*"

(Michelangelo* "Bacco")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Under Lorenzo, humanism and the use of the vernacu-' 28 lar achieved a fusion Mand even reached its consummation. **

In writers like Poliziano (1454-94), Pico della Mirandola,

Luigi Pulci (1432-84) and others the classical tradition

combined with the use of the vernacular to lay the ground­

work for another great group of writers a generation later —

Machiavelli, Castiglione, Ariosto, Guicciardini, Aretino,

Cellini.

(Anon. ,”Cristoforo Landino*1)

Lorenzo yearned for universal diffusion of the

Tuscan dialect. This was soon to be at hand with the in­

vention of printing. Bernardo Cenini set up a printing

press in Florence in 1471, and Lorenzo was quick to see the

advantages of print in spreading his native language through­

out Italy and, indeed, the western world.

(Anon., “Printing Scene**)

The year 1440 has traditionally been set as the date of the

invention of printing and Johann Gutenberg the inventor.

Because there was a great and growing market among students

and the increasingly literate middle class, the manufacture

of books spread rapidly. By the year 1500, more than 1,700

presses in almost 300 cities and towns in Europe had pro-

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. duced one or more books. The printing of books caused a

veritable cultural explosion that did much to carry the

ideas of the Renaissance throughout Europe.

(Anon., “Printing Scene” )

Lorenzo de Medici, with his great fortune, abounding

energy and love for literature was a focal point of human­

ism. Indeed, it has been said that NIn Lorenzo's time the

humanist movement reached a peak, due largely to Lorenzo

himself.”29

(Verrocchio, "Portrait Bust of Lorenzo de Medici”)

As a patron of learning, Lorenzo materially supported the

University of Florence! his endowment of the University of

Pisa helped to establish it as an important center for the

teaching of law, medicine and theology) among its alumni was

Galileo. Lorenzo was also active in the Florentine Platonic

Academy established by Cosimo.

(Vecellio, "Senator”)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 8 .

LiKe Cosimo before him, Lorenzo's patronage extended

to architecture, painting and sculpture as veil as literat­

ure and learning. In Florence he established a sculpture

garden between the Medici Palace and the Monastery of San

Marco in which he placed pieces collected and commissioned

by Cosimo and by his father, Piero,

(Michelango, "Figure")

with his great foresight, Lorenzo made of this sculpture

garden a school — a place not only to enjoy but in which

to learn. It is said of Lorenzo that "he was the first lay­

man to advance the interest not only of individual artists

but of art as such,**30 His sculpture garden was to become

the world's first museum,

(Medici Sculpture Garden, Florence)

Perhaps the most famous alumnus of Lorenzo's sculpture

school was Michelangelo (1475-1564), For four years he not

only studied in Lorenzo's school but was an honored guest

in the Medici household. He ate at Lorenzo's own table

along with Lorenzo's sons and other honored guests, for this

had become the tradition of the treatment of artists under the

Medici, The artists might be established, like Ghirlandaio,

Michelangelo's teacher, or they might be young and untried

like Michelangelo himselfj it made no difference.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (Anon., "Portrait Bust of Michelangelo")

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) accepted a studio in

the Medici gardens in 1477 when he was already a mature

artist of twenty-five. Brilliant, restless, a tireless

experimentor, Leonardo even in these years was setting a

pattern of beginning works never to be finished, like the

"Adoration of the Magi."

(Leonardo, "Self-Portrait")

Leonardo's feet were as restless as his mind; in 1482 he

went to Milan to the court of Lodovico Sforza and still

later to Mantua. He did not return to Florence until

1500. Further journeys took him back to Milan, to Rome,

and finally to France to the court of Francis I. Wher­

ever he went, Leonardo took the Renaissance with him —

and left masterpieces behind.

(Leonardo, "Adoration of the Magi")

Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), the Italian painter,

architect and biographer of artists, wrote that "it is

highly deserving of notice that all those who studied in

the gardens of the Medici, and were favored by Lorenzo, be­

came excellent artists. This can only be ascribed to the

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. exquisite judgment of this great patron • • • who could

not merely distinguish men of genius, but had the will and

power to reward them.**31 The ability to distinguish men of

genius and the will and power to reward them was a Renais­

sance characteristic epitomized by the Medici.

(Medici Sculpture Garden, Florence")

Lorenzo was by no means the important patron of archi­

tecture that his grandfather had been but he completed the

Church of San Lorenzo and the abby_ at Fiesole. Giuliano da

Sangalla designed Lorenzo's villa at Poggio a Caino, ten

miles west of Florence, the earliest example of Florentine

Greek revival in a private dwelling. With the exquisite

judgment remarked upon by Vasari, Lorenzo commissioned works

from two of the most important artists of Florence — the

sculptor Verrocchio(1432-1488) and the painter Botticelli

(1444-1510).

(Sangalla, "Poggio a Caino")

Verrocchio made a famous terra cotta portrait bust of

Lorenzo in 1485. It has come to epitomize the boldness,

vigor and introspection not only of Lorenzo but of Renais­

sance man himself.

(Verrocchio, "Portrait Bust.of Lorenzo de Medici")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Verrocchio sculpted a bronze "David" for Lorenzo; it was

a transitional figure between those of Donatello and Mich­

elangelo.

(Verrocchio, MDavidH)

The equestrian statue, of which Verrocchio's figure of

Bartolomeo Colleoni represents both an artistic and a

technological achievement, was new to the Renaissance.

It was a form consciously revived by Verrocchio in imi­

tation of classical models.

(Verrocchio, "Bartolomeo Colleoni")

The remarkable Florentine painter Sandro Botticel­

li was an intimate of Lorenzo and of the Florentine Plat­

onic Academy.

(Botticelli, "Portrait of a Youth")

With him the tradition of painting the female nude — one

which today we take very much for granted in art but which

in the Renaissance was a real innovation — received its

greatest impetus. This tradition derived quite naturally

from classical models, of which many were to be seen in the

Florence of Botticelli's time, especially in sculpture.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Painting, like literature, architecture and sculpture,

reached back to Greece and Rome for themes and models,

(Botticelli, "Priraavera," detail)

Botticelli began his career by painting subjects which

were thoroughly sacredj he ended it by painting many sub~

jects that were thoroughly secular and were called by some

pagan and profane. There was a freeness, a controlled

sensuality, and above all a choice of subject matter

grounded in classical mythology in Botticelli's work which

carried Renaissance secular painting to its height,

(Botticelli, ’’Birth of Venus")

In the "Birth of Venus," painted for Lorenzo and his

younger brother Giuliano in 1480, Botticelli achieved a

remarkable synthesis of line, theme, style, and compos­

ition, The theme of the painting was taken from Poliziano's

La qiostra. The Joust, celebrating victories both in jousts

and in love, but it is a strangely chaste love we find de­

picted, When she is clothed by the figure on her left,

the Venus might almost become a Madonna,

("Birth of Venus")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It has been said of this painting that Hin addition to

its assured position as a supreme work of art the "Birth

of Venus" also illustrates the ideal of Florentine civili­

zations the setting of what was best in the classical

world within a Christian framework* the amalgamation with 32 Christianity of the highest pagan beliefs about love."

("Birth of Venus," detail)

The model for Venus is said to be Simonetta Vespucci, cele­

brated by Poliziano as "La bella Simonetta.," a woman be­

loved by Lorenzo's younger brother Giulianos

The beauteous nymph who feeds my soul with fire

I found in gentle, pure, and prudent mood,

In graceful attitude,

Loving and courteous, holy, wise, benign.

So sweet, so tender was her face divine,

So gladsome, that in those celestial eyes

Shone perfect paradise,

Yea, all the good that we poor mortals crave.33

Poliziano's poem, and others like it, were to raise Italian

love lyrics to a threshold they had not known since Petrarch.

(Setti.gnanor "Busto di gentildonna")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The "Birth of Venus" itself was later to be attacked

by Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98), a fiery Benedictine monk.

For Savonarola, Venus represented a moral decline and decay

in F lore nee, not only because she was nude but because she

was pagan. A further reason may have been the association

the painting had with the Medici family. If the Venus was

a symbol of the decline of Florentine morals, thought Savona­

rola, the Medici were the reason for that decline.

(della Porta, "Savonarola")

It is interesting and ironic that Savonarola owed his

position in Florentine pulpits to Lorenzo himself ~ Loien-

izo, who was a devout Catholic and at the same time undog-

mat ic with respect to other religions and ideologies. A

year after the painting of the "Birth of Venus" in 1481,

Savonarola was preaching in the church of San Lorenzo in

Florence. Though he was an eloquent and gifted orator, his

congregation found his sermons somewhat too theoretical and

didactic for their tastes.

(Anon>,"desimplicitate Christianae vitae")

Savonarola's talent for pedagogy was set to use instruct­

ing novices. In 1486 he was sent to Lombardy,where he devel­

oped a preaching style less didactic and more prophetic. In

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1489, at the suggestion of Pico and at the invitation of

Lorenzo, Savonarola returned to Florence, By 1491, he was

Prior of San Marco and in full cry denouncing Lorenzo as a

tyrant leading Florence to certain destruction.

(Anon., "Dialogo della verita profetica")

Self-righteous, eloquent, a gifted orator with a

talent for prophecy, Savonarola was to plague Lorenzo's

later years with stinging criticism of the Medici deliver­

ed from the pulpit of San Marco. Lorenzo, plagued as well

by ill health — that same gout which had tortured his

grandfather and killed his father at the age of fifty-

five — let Savonarola preach on.

(Anon., "Savonarola Preaching")

Perhaps one of the reasons for his forebearance was that

shortly before he died Lorenzo was to see his second son,

Giovanni, consecrated a Cardinal at the age of seventeen,

thereby becoming the youngest Cardinal in the history of

the papacy. This young man was to become, in 1513, Pope

Leo X, the first of four Medici Popes who were to reign

during the sixteenth century.

(Raphael, "Pope Leo X")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Lorenzo the Magnificent died on April 9, 1492 at the

age of forty-three. Even on his deathbed Lorenzo knew that

the freedom for Florence that he had struggled to maintain

for twenty-five years was again in jeopardy. Two months be­

fore his death, Lodovico Sforza, who had stolen the Duchy of

Milan from his nephew, the rightful Duke, began negotiations

with King Charles VIII of France, who thought he had a claim

to the Kingdom of Naples.

(della Robbia, "Visit the Sick")

The last words in Machiavelli's History of Florence,

written more than thirty years after Lorenzo*s death, well

describe what was to be the political history of Florence

for the next generations

Whether the Florentines had just cause for mourning at Lorenzo's death was soon after shown by the re­ sult, for when Italy was deprived of his advice, those who were left found no way either to satisfy or to check the ambition of Lodovico Sforza, the guardian of the Duke of Milan. No sooner was Lorenzo dead them Lodovico*s ambition stimulated the growth of those evil seeds that not long after, since no living man could destroy them, devastated — and are still devastating — Italy# 34

(Master of the Pala Sforzesza,"Lodovico Sforza")

Sforza*s negotiations, which allowed Charles VIII

free passage through Milanese territory, were to result in

the invasion of Italy by France in 1494. It has been said that

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "The invasion marked the beginning of the enslavement of

Italyi it also initiated the coming of the slow fog which

dimmed and, finally blotted out the brilliant culture of 35 the peninsula." The remaining years of the fifteenth

century were ruinous for Florence.

(Anon., "Civil Strife")

Lorenzo was succeeded by his eldest son, Piero di

Lorenzo, then twenty-one. Piero was no match for the

great crises that vjre about to overwhelm Italy — crises

which would have tested the negotiating skills of Cosimo,

the talent for personal diplomacy of Lorenzo, and the

financial resourches of both.

(Verrocchio, "Giuliano de Medici")

In the summer of 1492, the French began their march

into Italy. Piero, knowing that Florence was weak both

in arms and in morale, and feeling that Rome and Naples

would allow Florence to take the shock of the invasion

without coming to his aid, negotiated with Charles,

Charles demanded the use of certain Florentine territories

for the duration of what he called his "enterprise," to*-

gether with a huge loan of 200,000 ducats.

(della Francesca, "Cavaliere a sinistra")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 8 .

Though these outrageous demands had been suggested by

Charles only as points to be negotiated, Piero accepted

them* By so doing he further encouraged the French invasion

and enraged the citizens of Florence* Piero and Cardinal

Giovanni were forced to flee Florence and the Medici Palace

was sacked* Savonarola hailed the invading Charles as

the savior of Florence for having delivered her from the

Medici*

(Perugino, "Guarigione del capitano Tornano")

Charles VIII entered Florence on November 14, 1494, and was

lodged, symbolically, in the Medici Palace, soon thereafter

he marched south without seriously harming Florence or its

inhabitants; his quarrel was not with them — - but he took

with him an indemnity of 120,000 ducats and left behind a

demoralized city.

(Granacci, "Entrata di Carlo VIII in Firenz4")

Rome fell to Charles without resistance, as did Naples*

Italy belatedly pulled herself together* Venice, Rome and

King Ferdinand of Spain formed a Holy League dedicated to

the expulsion of the French from Naples, but Florence and

Milan remained neutral* Italy remained disunited and weak.

Charles, satisfied with the success of his "enterprise,"

decided to march back to France*

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (Mantegna, "Martyrdom of St. Christopher")

An Italian force which outnumbered him three to one

attached Charles at the Battle of Fornova and was soundly

defeated by him in the bloodiest fighting Italy had seen

in 200 years. Charles crossed the Alps into France. A

watchful world — one in which countries like England, Spain

and Germany were knitting themselves into nations, took note

that Italy was a weak prey for anyone who chose to invade.

(Uccello, "Battle of San Romano")

As Italy grew weaker, Savonarola grew stronger. His

goal was to replace the classical revival with a religi­

ous revival, to replace the Medici with Christ. So persua<-

sive was Savonarola's preaching that men who had been members

of Lorenzo's circle — Ficino, Pico, Poliziano, Botticelli,

Michelangelo — flocked to hear him preach and become his

disciples. Botticelli stopped painting nudes; Pico resolved

to become a Dominican friar.

(Anon., "Operetta sopra i Dieci Comandamenti")

Savonarola organized the youth, ordered them to cut

their hair short, and sent them into the streets and homes

of Florence singing hymns of repentance and relieving gam?-

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. biers of their dice and playihg cards. Savonarola had pre­

dicted the death of Lorenzo and the invasion of a foreign

army. He was a strong voice to a demoralized people. He

was obeyed.

(della Robbia, "Testa di fanciullo")

Under Savonarola's orders men, women and children,

stirred or terrified by his apocalyptic vision of the end

of the world — a vision which seemed justified to them in

the light of recent events, brought copies of Boccaccio and

Petrarch, musical instruments, playing cards, chess boards,

perfumes, false hair pieces — sinful vanities as Savonaro­

la called them.— to be burned in the public square.

(Anon.,"Predica del arte del bene morire")

Savonarola did not hesitate to attack the papacy for

its immorality. Rodrigo Borgia had become Pope Alexander

VI in 1492} insults had flown between him and Savonarola.

Seeing that Italy must be united against foreign adventur­

ers and that Savonarola was now the most powerful man in

Florence, one of the keys to Italian unity, Alexander ig­

nored Savonarola's insults and offered him a Cardinal's hat

in exchange for his cooperation.

(Strozzi, "Pope Eugene IV in Florence")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. He was spurned* Alexander retaliated by excommunicating

Savonarola* For six months the fiery preacher and pro-

phesier was silent* Then, on Christmas Day, 1497, he broke

his silence in direct challenge to the Pope* Alexander now

threatened Florence with economic reprisals* The practical

Florentines, by now beginning to w«ary of Savonarola and

thinking more of their temporal than their spiritual well­

being, asked him to stop preaching,

(Anon* ,"Vitae Pontif icum")

But in March of that year Savonarola preached his

last sermon, blasting the Pope as a keeper of whores and

the papacy itself as hellish and Satanic. Criticism of Sav­

onarola grew in Florence* Some of his followers offered to

undergo trial by fire in order to demonstrate God's support

of him* Savonarola offered to walk through the flames with

his followers. A trial by fire was arranged* When it was

cancelled because of rain, the citizens of Florence, denied

a spectacle they had greatly anticipated, were in a rage.

On Palm Sunday, Savonarola and some of his followers were

arrested and imprisoned*

(Marone, "Arousing the Monks and Faithful Bishops")

Put to torture, Savonarola confessed to, among other

things, false prophecy* He was found guilty by a papal com­

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. mission and handed over to the secular arm for punishment*

On May 23, 1498, he was hanged in the Piazza della Signoria,

his body burned and the ashes scattered on the Arno River*

(Anon*,"Death of Savonarola")

It has been suggested that political, social and eco­

nomic stability were basic elements that made possible the

Florentine Renaissance of the Quattrocento*

(Anon*»"Domestic Scene")

With a series of external and internal crises, beginning in

1494, this time not surmounted, the intense and sustained

creativity over more than three generations that was the

Renaissance in Florence — a creativity that can only come

with peace and patronage in a city state — abruptly stopped*

(Michelangelo, "The Flood")

Gone was the "intellectual excitement caused by the

challenge of new conditions of life, of new potentialities

in every field of culture." Gone was that "sense of breaking

new ground and of scanning ever-widening horizons" from

which the Renaissance • • • drew its positive inspiration."36

(Bellini, "Processione in Piazza San Marco")

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Destruction, not creativity, burning, not building,

were the results of the external and internal political,

social and economic problems that beset Florence in the last

years of the fourteenth century. Patronage stopped or dwin- •

died) artists ceased creating or fled to other parts of Italy —

Rome, Venice, Milan — or to other countries in Europe that

seemed more hospitable to their talents and to Renaissance.

With some exceptions there was a diaspora of the Renaissance

from Florence throughout the western world in the sixteenth

century. But that is another century — and another story.

(Lorenzeiti, "Fresco for Town Hall, Siena")

Near the end of the Trecento, the fourteenth century,

A Florentine artist of the School of Giotto painted this*

The body, spirit and mind are here confined.

(School of Giotto, "Inferno")

At the height of the Renaissance in Florence, Botticelli

painted this* The body, spirit and mind here are free.

(Botticelli, "Primavera")

After the French invasion of 1494, Botticelli painted

•La Dereletta," "The Derel ict," to show what the mood of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Florence had become.

(Botticelli* "La Dereletta")

After 1500* though he was to live another decade* Botticelli

did not paint at all. For him Florence had become an empty

canvas.

(Photograph of empty canvas)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Foo tn o tes

1 Pico della Mirandola, "On the Dignity of Man,"

quoted in The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, ed. Ernst

Cassirer, Paul Oskar Kris teller, and John Herrhan Randall,

Jr. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1948),

p. 225.

2 Wallace K. Ferguson, "The Interpretation of the

Renaissance: Suggestions for a Synthesis," Journal of

the History of Ideas, XII (1951), rpt. in The Renais­

sance Medieval or Modern? (Boston: D.C. Heath and

Company, 1959), p. 107.

3 Hans Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian

Renaissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press,

1966), p. 443.

^ Shakespeare: Twenty-Three Plays and the Sonnets,

ed. Thomas Marc Parrott (New York: Charles Scribner's

Sons, 1938), p. 168.

5 Will Durant, The Age of Faith, The Story of Civil­

ization, Book IV (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950),

pp. 1081 and 1069.

6 % •• Ernest Renan, Averroes et L 1Averroisme (Paris,

n.d.), p. 328, quoted in The Renaissance, by Will and

Ariel Durant (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953), pp.

8-9.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Footnotes, cont'd

7 Ibid., p. 9.

8 Baron, pp. 451-52.

9 Niccolo Machiavelli, The History of Florence,

trans. Allan Gilbert (Duke University Press, 1965), p.

1179.

10 Baron, p. 35.

11 Machiavelli, p. 1179.

12 Baron, p. 419.

13 Denys Hay, The Italian Renaissance in its His­

torical Background (Cambridgej at the University Press,

1961), p. 125.

14 Holy Bible, King James Version, Matthew XIX,

21:24.

15 Holy Bible. Luke XVIII, 22:25.

16 Marvin B. Becker, Florence in Transition

(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1968), pp. 231-32.

17 Machiavelli, p. 1231.

18 Myron P. Gilmore, The World of Humanism (New

York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1952), p. 191.

19 Machiavelli, p. 1342.

20 Everard M. Upjohn, Paul S. Wingert, and Jane

Caston Mahler, History of world Art (New York: Oxford

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Footnotes, cont'd

University Press, 1958), p. 250.

21 Vincent Cronin, The Florentine Renaissance (New

York: E.P. Dutton and Co., 1967), p. 190.

22 Durant, The Renaissance, p. 110.

23 John R. Hale, Renaissance (New York: Time-

Life Books, 1971), p. 84.

24 Machiavelli, p. 1344.

23 The Renaissance: Makers of M o a e m Man (National

Geographic Society, 1970), pp. 90-91.

26 Cronin, p. 216.

2^ Baron, pp. 250-51.

28 Ferdinand Schevill, The Medici (New York: Har-

court, Brace and Company, 1949), p. 148.

29 Cronin, p. 162.

30 Durant, The Renaissance, pp. 128-29.

31 Cronin, p. 211.

32 Durant, p. 124.

33 Machiavelli, pp. 1434-35.

34 Schevill, p. 169.

35 Ferguson, p. 107.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bibliography

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don: English Universities Press, 1955.

Anglo, Sydney. Machiavelli, a Dissection. New York:

Harcourt, Brace and World, 1970.

Baron, Hans. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance.

Princeton, New Jersey: Princton University Press,

1966.

Becker, Marvin B. Florence in Transition. Baltimore, Mary­

land: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1968.

Benians, Sylvia Mary. From Renaissance to Revolution; a

Study of the Influence of the Renaissance upon the

Political Thought of Europe. Port Washington, New York:

Kenikat Press, 1970.

Brion, Marcel. Medici, A Great Family. Trans. Giles and

Heather Cremone. New York: Crown, 1969.

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in the British Museum. London: Printed by order of

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Burke, Peter. Culture and Society in Renaissance Italy,

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Chabod, Federico. Machiavelli and the Renaissance. Trans.

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Chamberlin, Eric Russell. Everyday Life in Renaissance

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Cronin, Vincent. The Florentine Renaissance. New York:

Dutton, 1967.

De La Beydoyere, Michael. The Meddlesome Friar and the

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Gage, John. Life in Italy at the Time of the Medici.

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Gilbert, Felix. "Renaissance Interest in History." Art,

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Hall, George Francis. A Corpus of Italian Medals of the

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