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1452-1481
Leonardo in the Florence of the Medici
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Medicean Florence: Lorenzothe Magnificent
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Statesman, writer, and patron of the "tatesman,
writer, and patron of the arts, Lorenzo de' Medici,
lord of Florence (1469-92), was a key figure in
15th-century Italian political life and in humanist
and Renaissance culture. When the pope cancelled the
Medici bank concession in Rome, Lorenzo used public
money to enlist the support of the wealthy middle
classes and encouraged a radical revival of interest
in philosophy, literature, and the visual arts.
Crushing the conspiracy of the Pazzi family (1478),
in which his brother Giuliano was murdered, Lorenzo
consolidated his personal power. Aiming for a
political balance between the Italian states, he
ensured that the precept and example of the
Florentine Renaissance spread to Rome, Venice,
Milan, and Naples. The Careggi Academy, of which he
was patron, and whose members included Ficino, Pico
della Mirandola, and Politian, was the centre from
which the concepts of Neo-Platonism were diffused
throughout Europe.
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Giovanni Delle Corniole (?),
Portrait of Lorenzo Medici,
late 14th-early 15th century, onyx cameo,
Museo degli Argenti, Florence.
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Stefano Bonsignori, Plan of Florence,
1483,
Museo Storico Topografico Firenze Com'era, Florence.
During this time the city of Florence was the most
literate in Europe.
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Leon Battista Alberti, Facade of Santa Maria
Novella,
Florence, completed in 1470.
Classical architecture in Florence revived the use of
inlaid marble in geometrical shapes.
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Sandro Botticelli, Portrait of a Youth,
(1470-77), detail with the medal of Cosimo
Medici, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
Cosimo (1389-1464), known as pater
patriae, was much concerned with
business affairs and owned a notable
collection of antique vases, carvings,
cameos, "unicorn" horns, and other priceless
artefacts. Lorenzo enriched the family
collection with medals, antique statues, and
objects of applied art.
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Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of
Venus, 1480, Galleria degli Uffizi,
Florence.
This painting, which derives its
subject from Homeric literature,
and from
Ovid's Metamorphoses and Fasti,
is a return to classical paganism, with
allegorical overtones.
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Patrons and workshops
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The Chronicles of Benedetto Dei tell us
that in about 1472 Florence boasted the presence of 40
workshops devoted to painting, 44 to goldsmithery, 50 to
engraving in relief and half-relief, and more than 80 to
inlaid and carved woodwork. A city bustling with
commerce, Florence profited from the building fervor of
Cosimo's day, and developed a culture exemplified by the
products of workshops and corporations that found a
market beyond the immediate region and were also
exported abroad. There was a demand not only for
painting and sculpture but also for goldsmiths' work,
coffers, banners, stained-glass, miniatures, carvings,
marquetry, wax ex votos, furniture, decorations for
fireplaces and basins, wool and silk materials, leather
and ceramics. The shops produced both objects of general
everyday use and expensive specialized articles,
publicly or privately commissioned: as well as the lords
of the city, patrons included families known locally for
their generosity, like the Tornabuoni, the Strozzi, the
Sassetti, the Portinari, and the Vespucci.
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Monte di Giovanni, St Zenobius, mosaic from
the crypt of Santa Maria del Fiore,
1496,
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence.
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Maso di Bartolomeo,
Reliquary of the Sacro Cingolo Chapel, 1446, Museo
dell'Opera del Duomo, Prato.
This object reproduces on a small scale the putti
of Donatello's Cantoria in Florence, effectively demonstrating the successful
application of Donatello's style to cabinet work and tapestry.
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Florentine 15th-century Cupboard, inlaid walnut, Home Museum,
Florence.
Production of cupboards in the following century
moved from Florence to Liguria.
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Donatello, The Head of Goliath,
detail of the David,
controversially dated 1430 to 1450,
Bargello, Florence, formerly in the centre of the courtyard
of the
Medici Palace, built by Cosimo in 1444, in the Via Larga.
The sallet of the helmet is decorated with a triumphal
scene,
worked in onyx, showing Bacchus and Ariadne.
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Luca della Robbia, Madonna of the Rose Garden,
Bargello, Florence.
The workshop founded by Luca della Robbia
operated until the end of the century on something
approaching an industrial scale.
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