Why Florence?

The Great City of the Renaissance

(The sixth in my nine posts about European culture from the 400s to the 1700s.)

By 1400 the city of Florence was a citadel of arts and culture.  Reaching a greatness that was all its own, Florence came to embody and define the Renaissance.

            There was the adapting of the Civic worldview, which took hold and grew in Florence in the late 1300s and early 1400s, perhaps more than anywhere else.   Two chancellors (or chief public leaders) of Florence — Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) and leading Civic writer Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444) — actively promoted Civic thought and living.

            There was the especially strong Platonic influence.  The Platonic ideal of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful thrived in Florence as nowhere else.

            There was the University of Florence, a great center of learning where renowned scholars taught.  No city had better manuscript libraries.  No city had better tutors. 

            There was the fact that Florence was a republic.  With their civic spirit, Florentine parents pushed their sons to excel in business, government, and church leadership.  With their civic patriotism, Florentines demanded beautiful buildings.   With their public spirit, the citizens of Florence insisted that their city be filled with glories.  And the people of Florence honored the gifts of the individual; wealthy patrons, churches, and the city government all commissioned works of art.

            There was the reputation of the painters of Florence for exceptional draftsmanship and drawing.  The visual arts were a focus in Florence.

There was the exceptional way that Florentines honored their artists.  Artists truly had stature in Renaissance Florence.  Leading writers and artists were heroes.  In fact, they were lionized.

            And there were the Medicis.  The Medici family held a profound enthusiasm for the new, the magnificent, and the perfect — and they backed their enthusiasm with generous funding.

            Giovanni di Bicci de’Medici (1360-1427) aided Masaccio and commissioned Brunelleschi.  Comiso de’Medici (1389-1464) — Comiso the Elder — helped Donatello and friar Angelico, and it was with Cosimo’s patronage, in 1462, that Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) founded the Florentine Academy.   

            Lorenzo de’Medici (1449-1492) — Lorenzo the Magnificent, who was himself an artist, a poet, and a songwriter — secured commissioned work for Verrocchio, Sandro Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo.  Michelangelo lived several years on Lorenzo’s estate.

            And so Florence became the most aesthetically inspired city-state that the world has ever known.