BY STAS MARGARONIS
Paul Strathern’s book The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, chronicles how Renaissance sculptors, painters and architects were promoted and financed by visionary bankers who also assumed the political leadership of Florence. Beginning in the fourteenth century, Florence benefitted from the growth of the wool trade that required bankers to advance credit for production and letters of credit to support exports. Florence’s European market for textiles required an international network of bankers. One of the families that rose to prominence in Florence during this period would play a leading role financing and promoting the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.
This family was the Medici family.
Four leaders of the Medici played pivotal roles in promoting the bank, the arts and the family’s political leadership over Florence:
Giovanni (1360-1429) This conservative banker played a critical role in supporting early achievements of the Renaissance. He helped select Lorenzo Ghiberti to create the bronze doors for the Baptistry of San Giovanni. The doors, portraying biblical scenes, would take Ghiberti twenty years to produce and during this time, he developed new methods and new casting technology.[1] This displayed a synergy between art and science.
Giovanni was also instrumental in selecting the architect Brunelleschi to build the hospital, Ospedale degli Innocenti, along ancient Roman lines. In 1421, Giovanni’s support helped the architect win the contract for his crowning achievement, the dome for the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Brunelleschi who had been infuriated with the committee that awarded Ghiberti the bronze door contract, refused to share his plans for building the dome to the selection committee. In response to their demands, Brunelleschi challenged the committee to show how an egg could stand upright. When no one could solve the problem, he took an egg out and smashed it so that it stood upright on a table! Giovanni must have been challenged to defend Brunelleschi’s adversarial marketing style to the selection committee and Florence city fathers. The Florence cathedral, begun in 1296, was incomplete because no one could engineer a dome to crown the structure. After Brunelleschi’s selection, the engineering and construction of the dome would require another 15 years and 1,500 tons of bricks. It would require new crane and hoisting technology. The discovery of an inner and outer dome design used to build the ancient dome for the Pantheon in ancient Rome inspired Brunelleschi to use the same design for the cathedral. Just as with Ghiberti’s bronze doors, Brunelleschi’s dome required a synergy between art and science.[2]
Giovanni became Mayor of Florence and also supported and financed the election of Baldasarre Cosa who was elected Pope John XXIII. Backing the winning Pope helped the Medicis to become the Papal bankers. This made their bank pre-eminent in Europe. Supporting Cosa was a risky move on Giovanni’s part as Cosa was not exactly a man of solid virtue. As cardinal, Cosa was reported to have maintained a notorious household with “two hundred maids” in residence. This behavior carried over into his papacy.[3]
What distinguished Giovanni was that he reflected a new humanism among his generation of Florentines. This coincided with Republican politics in Florence that relied less on the religious dogma of Medieval times. Giovanni chose to educate his son less along religious lines and more along humanistic principals.
Cosimo (1389-1464) plays the most important role as the Medici promoter of the Renaissance. He is also the political leader of Florence, although he will narrowly avoid execution by his political enemies. His prominence began in 1414, when the Council of Constance was held to mediate between three competing popes, who were summoned by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. Giovanni sent his 25-year-old son Cosimo to support Pope John and act as his advisor. Unfortunately, Pope John’s indiscretions caused him to be deposed and a new pope was selected, Martin V. To cover potential bank losses, Cosimo held on to a jewel-encrusted mitre that the Pope had pledged as collateral for his debts to the Medici. Remarkably, Giovanni did not abandon the deposed Cosa in his disgrace: he showed a sense of loyalty that went beyond conventional pragmatism. The Council introduced Cosimo to the great leaders and bankers of Europe creating new relations for the Medici Bank that would last for years and so the loss of a friendly Pope was only a temporary setback to the Medici family.[4]
Cosimo was thus a politician, a banker and, thanks to his humanistic education, a scholar. His great contribution to the Renaissance was supporting the revival of scholarship directed at ancient Greece. He financed the acquisition of lost texts and writings of ancient Greeks. He also supported the learning of the ancient Greek language so that modern scholars could read the recovered texts in their original language. He built up a library based on Greek texts that he acquired from individuals who traveled around Europe in search of promising manuscripts.
One of his agents and friends, Poggio Braccolini, discovered the manuscript for De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) in 1417. This is a poem describing a scientific formulation of the universe where matter is composed of atoms and where the gods played no role. It is based on the works of Epicurus and Democritus. [5] It is one of the most significant finds of the era and encouraged the development of modern scientific thought.
Another Cosimo agent and friend, Niccolo Niccoli founded the first Greek chair of learning at the University of Florence in 1397. Niccoli supported Donatello’s study of ancient Greek sculpture and Brunelleschi’s study of ancient Rome. Niccoli established Manuel Chrysoloras, an emissary from the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, as professor of Greek. This expanded the understanding of the Greeks with the ability to read and study the newly discovered texts. When Niccoli died in 1437 he bequeathed his library of manuscripts of the ancient world to Cosimo who added it to his own collection opening it as one of the largest libraries in Europe.[6]
In 1439, the Ecumenical Council was held in Florence under Cosimo’s auspices. It attempted to bridge the gap between the Catholic and Orthodox doctrinal differences. The subsequent agreement was, unfortunately, repudiated when the Orthodox delegates returned to Constantinople. This, in turn, denied the promise of military aid from Italy to combat the threat of the Ottoman Turks. The result was that in 1453, the Turks conquered Constantinople. The Council did encourage increased receptivity to Greek ideas and encouraged Greek scholars from Constantinople to emigrate to Florence.[7]
Cosimo’s patronage of Donatello created a new tolerance for the arts after the artist produced his homoerotic sculpture, David. This demonstrates the extent to which the Medici banker would go to sponsor Renaissance art. Donatello was commissioned to sculpt a statue of David, the slayer of Goliath. Instead of creating a heroic representation, Donatello’s sculpture dresses David as a contemporary effeminate young man whose statue is in blatant contrast with the pious representation of biblical figures. The statue was accorded the place of honor in the Palazzo Medici. It was the first free-standing statue produced in 1,000 years, using new casting technology. Strathern describes how tolerant Cosimo could also be of the unusual behavior of artists. Donatello had produced a bust of a prominent merchant who refused to pay him because he thought he was being overcharged. Cosimo was asked to intervene and the statue was brought up on to the roof of his palazzo to show it in the natural light. During the argument with the merchant, Donatello lost his temper and threw the sculpture off the roof smashing it into pieces. Cosimo protected Donatello from retaliation for his action. [8]
The new art may have required new science but it also needed new money. Cosimo sponsored Brunelleschi, Donatello and Michelozzo to rebuild Florence along ancient Greek and Roman architectural principals. Cosimo would spend a staggering 663,000 gold florins between 1434 and 1471 on his many projects He rebuilt and built palaces, churches and monasteries in Florence in the new Renaissance style. The cost was six times the revenue that a rival bank generated in one year.[9]
Piero (1418-1469), Cosimo’s son, led the bank and Florence for only five years after his father died. During that time, he managed to stabilize the Medici bank’s finances by calling in a number of non-performing loans that his father Cosimo had not attended to. Unfortunately, this gave opponents of Cosimo and the Medici an additional grudge when loans were called in. The result was an attempt to depose Piero and the Medici from their leadership role in Florence.
To defuse the situation, in 1466, Piero dispatched his 17-year-old son Lorenzo to negotiate an agreement with the King of Naples that diminished the political threat. However, Piero was then nearly ambushed and killed by his enemies returning to Florence. Lorenzo riding with his father’s party, discovered the ambush and led his father and their party into Florence on an alternative route. In both cases the young Lorenzo was showing his mettle as the next political leader of Florence.[10]
Piero also fended off a challenge to the Bank’s alum monopoly. Alum is a compound used for dyeing and tanning of textiles. Piero sent Lorenzo to successfully present his arguments to Pope Paul II that resulted in the Pope allowing the bank to maintain and manage the monopoly for sale and distribution in Europe. The revenues helped the Medicis increase revenues and offset bad debt losses.[11]
Piero’s artistic contribution was to continue to support the artist Fra Lippi, who was first supported by Cosimo, and who painted a series of religious masterpieces. The painter, Sandro Boticelli originally studied and worked for Lippi in his studio where he developed his flair for delicate lines and color. After graduating from Lippi’s studio, Boticelli was invited to live at the Palazzo Medici by Piero’s wife Lucrezia. Boticelli was taken in as a family member and was befriended by Piero and Lorenzo. After Lorenzo saved his father from the ambush, Boticelli celebrated the event by painting The Adoration of the Magi as the altarpiece for the Santa Maria Novella church.[12]
Lorenzo (1449-1492) known as the ‘Magnificent’ may not have contributed as much to the arts as his father Piero, according to Strathern: “Lorenzo may have enjoyed the company of artists and done his best to encourage them, but surprisingly his patronage of them was not as widespread as that of his father Piero. In fact, he preferred his collection of jewels to paintings…”[13]
Lorenzo was a skilled political leader who narrowly avoided assassination in a coup attempt by the rival Pazzi family in 1478 that resulted in the death of Lorenzo’s brother Giuliano. The coup was supported by Pope Sixtus IV. When the coup failed, the Pope was enraged: especially since the conspirators were executed including an archbishop in ceremonial robes. And so, the Pope excommunicated Lorenzo di Medici and all the citizens of Florence. The Pope declared war on Florence and summoned King Ferrante of Naples to support the war. In 1479, Lorenzo again went to Naples and persuaded Ferrante to pull back from attacking Florence thus ending the threat. [14]
Christopher Hibbert in his The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall says that while Lorenzo’s political position may have been secure after 1480: “…the fortunes of the Medici Bank were fast declining. Lorenzo had none of his grandfather’s taste or talent for business; he gave far too much scope to his branch managers and relied far too heavily upon the often-ill-judged advice of his temporizing, ingratiating general manager, Francesco Sassetti.” Bad loans to King Edward IV of England led to the closing of the London branch of the Medici bank. The Bruges and Milan branches also closed and those in Rome, Lyon and Naples were in difficulties. Lorenzo relied on bad managers and was uninterested in taking a more active role in management. The result was that when he ran short of money, he began to embezzle from the Florentine treasury and from the trust of two cousins.[15]
Lorenzo is known to have been a patron of three famous Renaissance artists: Sandro Boticelli, originally supported by Piero and Lucrezia, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarotti.
Boticelli had a close relationship to the Medici family. In 1481, Lorenzo trusted him sufficiently to send him on a quasi- peace mission to Pope Sixtus in the aftermath of the Pazzi coup in Florence. Boticelli worked for two years in Rome, including the painting of frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. He returned to Florence and painted The Birth of Venus as a commission for a cousin of Lorenzo. The painting is considered part of a new wave of painting that reflected the break with religious subjects.[16]
Leonardo’s relationship with the Medici family was not as strong. Strathern says that Lorenzo supported his winning a major commission to paint The Adoration of the Magi for the Dominican friars at the church of San Donato at Scopeto. However, another art historian disputes this, stating that Leonardo’s father helped him win the commission, because of his business relationship with the monastery. The Adoration of the Magi is considered a masterpiece even though it is unfinished. One critic noted:” there is a striking variety of movement and gesture amongst the figures in this composition.”[17]
Strathern notes that unfinished work became a habit: “Leonardo was continuing with his self-education, drawing buildings, imaginary engineering projects, military machines, anatomical features. And this was the trouble: he was so interested in all of these things that he soon lost interest in the project at hand. Despite years of intermittent work, along with entreaties and then the threats of the Dominican friars, The Adoration of the Magi was never finished; this would be but the first of many projects, which recurred throughout Leonardo’s life.” [18] In defense of Leonardo, it was his focus on light, anatomy, perspective and other scientific pursuits that made him an outstanding artist. Nobody in the Renaissance embodied the synergy between art and science more than Leonardo da Vinci.
Lorenzo saw that Leonardo was making too many enemies in Florence and recommended him to the new ruler of Milan, Lodovico Sforza, who took a liking to him. Leonardo was thus able to move to Milan where his talents were better appreciated.[19]
Michelangelo had a better relationship with Lorenzo, according to Strathern. He cites a famous anecdote contained in Vasari’s Lives of the Artists. In 1489, Lorenzo opened a sculpture school near the Palazzo Medici. Lorenzo discovered the 14-year old Michelangelo working in the sculpture garden chiseling the head of a satyr. Lorenzo was so impressed by his skill that he invited Michelangelo to live and work in the Palazzo Medici for the next four years, just as Boticelli had and perhaps Leonardo. In 1491, Michelangelo produced the sculpture, The Madonna of the Stairs. This and the Battle of the Centaurs which he created in 1492 were Michelangelo’s first two sculptures: ”There could be no mistaking that this was the birth of another superlative talent, first encouraged by the Medici….Michelangelo would remain deeply involved with the Medici family until the end of his life.” [20]
In 1489, Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar, began to preach against the role of tyrants at the San Marco monastery near Lorenzo’s school of sculpture in Florence. Michelangelo may have heard these sermons working in the sculpture garden. He proclaimed himself deeply impressed by Savonarola’s sermons as he saw his art as part of his spiritual life. The sermons became more political and directly challenged Lorenzo and the Medici family leadership of Florence.
As we have seen, the Medici banking empire was collapsing and Lorenzo had resorted to embezzlement to maintain his cash flow. The attacks against Lorenzo also occurred at a time when Florence was losing its textile business. England and other countries began manufacturing their own cloth resulting in a decline in the wool trade and the laying off of Florentine workers. Tougher economic times resulted in resentment being directed against the Medici and increasing sympathy for Savonrola’s attacks. Lorenzo, in his early forties, came down with the same gout that afflicted his father Piero. He became increasingly incapacitated and unable to fend off the growing attacks against himself and the family.
In 1492, as Lorenzo was dying he summoned Savonarola to seek absolution. Savonorola reportedly made three demands: that Lorenzo repent his sins; that Lorenzo give up his wealth; that Lorenzo “restore the liberty of the citizens of Florence.” Lorenzo repented his sins but declined to give up his money or change the political make-up of Florence.[21]
After Lorenzo’s death, Savonarola continued the campaign to bring about the Medici family downfall, an effort that succeeded in 1494. Savonarola also campaigned against what he considered to be the artistic and social excesses of Renaissance Italy, preaching against any sort of luxury. His power and influence grew so that he became the effective ruler of Florence.
Starting in February 1495, during the time in which the festival known as Carnival occurred, Savonarola began to host his regular “bonfire of the vanities.” He collected various objects that he considered to be objectionable: irreplaceable manuscripts, ancient sculptures, antique and modern paintings, priceless tapestries, and many other valuable works of art, as well as mirrors, musical instruments, books of divination, astrology, and magic. He destroyed the works of Ovid, Propertius, Dante, and Boccaccio. So great was his influence that he even managed to obtain the cooperation of major contemporary artists such as Sandro Botticelli who reluctantly consigned some works to the bonfires.[22]
Savonarola’s influence did not go unnoticed by the higher church officials, however, and his excesses earned him the disdain of Pope Alexander VI. He was eventually excommunicated on May 13, 1497. His charge was heresy and sedition. At the command of Pope Alexander VI Savonarola was executed on May 23, 1498, hung on a cross and burned to death. His death occurred in the same Florentine Square where he had previously held his bonfire of the vanities. The papal authorities took a leaf out of Savonarola’s book on censorship, because the day after his execution they gave word that anyone in possession of the Friar’s writings had four days to turn them over to a papal agent to be destroyed. Anyone who failed to do so faced excommunication. [23]
Strathern’s history of the Medici goes on to chronicle other significant family members:
Giulio, who becomes Pope Clement VII
Lorenzo’s son Giovanni, who becomes Pope Leo X
Catherine de Medicis, who becomes Queen of France
Marie de Medicis, who also becomes Queen of France
[1] Paul Strathern’s book The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, (2003) pp 99-100
[2] Ibid, pp 102-104
[3] Ibid, p. 30
[4] Ibid, p. 33-36
[5] Ibid, pp 85-.86
[6] Ibid, pp 82-85
[7] Ibid, pp 90-95
[8] Ibid, pp 107-11
[9] Ibid, p. 106
[10] Ibid, pp 130-133
[11] Ibid, p.137
[12] Ibid, pp 183-184
[13] Ibid, p.186
[14] Ibid, pp 160-171
[15] Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (1974) pp 158-159
[16] Strathern, pp 186-187
[17] Frank Zollner, Leonardo (2006), p..25
[18] Ibid, p. 191
[19] Ibid, p.191
[20] Ibid, p.197
[21] Ibid, pp 202-205
[22] See Francesco Guicciardini, The History of Florence (1970)
[23] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonfire_of_the_vanities