As had been established here and elsewhere, the Renaissance which means rebirth in English was a time of the golden age of arts and culture in Europe.
Just as history has it, the city of Florence in Italy, was the place of birth for the Renaissance.
Why should Florence be the birth place of the European Renaissance? Why would fleeing Greek scholars who fled from Constantinople (the capital city of the Roman Empire, eastern Roman Empire, now Istanbul in present Turkey) as it fell to the Ottomans, flee to Florence and not any other city?
The answers to these questions may lie on the activities of the popular Florentine family known as the Medici.
The Florentine Medici family was unapologetically patrons of the arts and humanities. Their unflinching support for arts and culture put the city of Florence at the centre of Europe during the Renaissance.
Not only did trade and commerce flourished in Florence around this time, arts and culture took a prominent position in this city as the Medicis commissioned and supported arts and culture.
This drew many people to the city, including the fleeing Greek scholars who fled Constantinople when it fell to the Muslim Ottomans. The city was the hub of European civilization at this time.
The Medici family was emigrants from the Tuscan village of Cafaggiolo, Italy, north of Florence, to the city of Florence in the 12th century. Florence was known as a trade centre at the time in Italy, maybe that was why the Medici family migrated to the city since they were involved in agric and wool merchandise. In 1230, the family name appeared in Florence’s city register.
But in 1397, Giovanni de Medici aka Giovanni di Bicci started the Medici bank.
This was the beginning of the extraordinary rise of this smart and politically savvy family. They began to gain influence and power through sponsoring arts and culture while they made money through banking and agric (wool merchandise). At a time, they were known as the wealthiest family in Europe.
As a successful banker, Giovanni de Medici was appointed into the guilds of commerce (trade) in Florence known as the Signoria. The guilds of commerce ran the city through the Signoria, but the members were changed every two months. However, Giovanni was three times a member of this prestigious body.
Although there were wealthier families than the Medici family, story had it that Giovanni supported the pope, and that made the church choose his bank as its official bank. This increased the family wealth and power.
Also, Giovanni was said to have voted to create a property tax to go into the city’s coffers in favour of the poor. And while wealthy families were making conspicuous donations to individuals to build works of arts like decorated orphanages and Doors of Paradise, Giovanni commissioned Brunelleschi to remodel the Church of San Lorenzo which later became the Medici family church. And the family crypt was located at the chapel behind the San Lorenzo church.
But Giovanni died before it was completed, and his son, Cosimo stepped into his shoes, and took the business to higher heights.
Cosimo was said to be an avid book reader and a true lover of arts. But he was also business savvy and amassed more wealth by expanding the family business – bought over other banks, etc. He did so well that he became known as the Pater Patriae (father of the country). He was also known as il vecchio (the Elder).
It was Cosimo who commissioned Michelozzo Michellozi to create Palazzo Medici (now known as Medici-Riccardo). He supported Fra Angelico, Fra Filipo Lippi and Donatelo. He got Brunelleschi the contract to complete the dome of the cathedral. He also founded the first public library in Florence at San Marco – this became vital to the humanist movement in Florence during the Renaissance.
Cosimo sponsored the efforts to renew Greek and Roman civilization through literature. He made sure that his grandson, a promising young man, received a good education in the humanities.
Cosimo powerfully influenced intellectual life during the Renaissance. He died on August 1, 1464. He son wasn’t as proficient as Cosimo, but his grandson did so well that he was called Lorenzo the Magnificent!
Lorenzo’s love for the arts surpassed his grand dad’s. Lorenzo supported arts and culture, helping people like Botticelli and Michelangelo – artists no one would have head of if not for the Medici family’s largesse.
However, Lorenzo wasn’t gifted in the skills of banking. The family banking business collapsed under him due to bad loans. When he died on 8, April 1492, his son Piero took over and squandered the family wealth. He was called “the Unfortunate.”
Fortunately, the second son, Giovanni, who had become Pope Leo X, retook the city in less than 20 years.
In 1531, one of the Medicis became the Grand Duke of Tuscany. They intermarried with European royals and went from merchants to royalty! The Medicis stayed in power through cousins and brothers until the 17th century!
Although the Medicis commissioned arts and sponsored it, the absence of financial imagery (which was their occupation) was so glaring in Florentine Renaissance art!
Some people have argued that the Medici family snobbish disdain for money which was the ladder, through which they climbed to fame, was the cause for the decline of culture in Florence later.
It was on record that the Medicis only commissioned religious and classical arts, never anything about the market place.
Someone wrote that it was an irony that “Renaissance Florence was built by capitalist innovation but went out of its way to make money invisible.” In its arts, politics, not money dominated the city’s culture.
Another opinion on why the Medicis shied away from projecting the means of their wealth in arts, was that it might be because of religious reasons, since the Bible condemns usury which banks thrive on, and Dante in his work, 7th Circle of Hell, placed usurers with sodomites and blasphemers in the same place, this might have made the Medici family to shun their trade in public and chose classical art and religion.
They were known to commission such works as the Admiration of the Magi, and other such religious arts and church related works.
The world truly is made better by the presence of the Medici family.
Their influences are all over the place in Florence today. And there are still about 100, 000 descendants of this great family, but zero patrilineal descendants.
Needless to conclude, that the world has need of people like the Medicis still. Just supporting arts and culture can attract trade and commerce, tourism and influential people into your city, state and country.
Support arts and culture today!