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Summary
Florence is often named as the birthplace of the Renaissance. As a center for the European wool trade, the political power of the city rested primarily in the hands of the wealthy merchants. These merchants built enormous, gilded mansions in the city, villas in the country, and contributed to the construction of grand cathedrals. They often competed with each other to see who could commission the grandest buildings and the finest works of art, supporting the early writers and artists of the period.
The Medici family, which controlled Florence throughout much of the Renaissance, played a large part in the patronage of the arts and the political development of the city. In 1397, Giovanni de Medici, the banker to the Papal Court, established headquarters in Florence, and served in many high-ranking political positions. After his death in 1429, his son, Cosimo de Medici, took over the family banking business and built up his father's fortune by establishing business connections all over Europe.
By 1434, Cosimo de Medici had consolidated his and his family’s power in Florence, ruling the city from behind the scenes while avoiding public office. He used his family’s fortune to generously support the arts, commissioning cathedrals with works by the best artists of the age to decorate them. He also demonstrated great support for education, establishing the Platonic Academy for the study of ancient works.
After Cosimo's death in 1464, he was succeeded first by his son Piero, then by his grandson, Lorenzo de Medici, known as “Il Magnifico,” in 1469. Under his control, the Florentine economy flourished, affording the lower class a greater level of comfort and protection than it had before. Under Lorenzo’s watchful eye, the arts flourished, and commerce increased, but the family business declined, and the Medici were forced to flee Florence two years after his death in 1492, when a fanatical priest, Girolamo Savonarola, encouraged an uprising against them.
Savonarola had attracted a following since 1491, when he began preaching against the worldliness of the Renaissance and calling for a return to simple faith. After the Medici were ousted in 1494, Savonarola assumed power, drafting a new draconian constitution, and attempted to revive the medieval spirit while burning books and paintings he considered immoral. However, in 1497, was declared a heretic and executed. Following this, the Medici returned to power in Florence in 1512.
Analysis
Many recent historians have argued that, while the Medici were no doubt influential in the Florentine Renaissance, their role is often exaggerated, and ambiguous at best. Despite the appearance of democracy and a republican government, the Medici were, in effect, the rulers of the city by heredity. Though the family undertook great measures to preserve its power, the Medici remained private citizens, yet were second only to the papacy in power during the Renaissance. They likely contributed more to the spirit of the times than the Church, as Florence was known as the center of the Renaissance, attracting thinkers and artists to the city and producing many more through schools sponsored by the Medici and others. Current historians view the ruling family as enlightened patrons who encouraged an existing trend, playing a small but vital role in the birth of the Renaissance.
Florence owed its prosperity and artistry during the Renaissance to its connections to the world around it. Already an important crossroads for wool traders since the Middle Ages, Giovanni and Cosimo de Medici used banking to make Florence a crossroads for finance, and from that, a crossroads for ideas. Ideals and philosophies from Europe flowed into the city, and in response, literature and art flowed out, back to the rest of Europe. The connection established with the Papal States was particularly beneficial to both Florence and Rome, as they mutually developed alongside each other during the Renaissance. Rome provided a destination for many Florentine artists and writers, and Florence benefited from the management of the papal purse.
