Lorenzo de'Medici & The Arts in Florence

The purpose of this research is to examine Lorenzo de' Medici and the arts in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical context in which Florence and the Medici family became relevant to the emergence of Italian Renaissance art, and then to discuss the shape and significance of Medici influence on the phenomenon.

In order to appreciate the significance of Lorenzo de Medici for the Renaissance and for the arts of the period, it is first necessary to examine how the concept emerged in Europe, setting the stage for Medici influence. The Renaissance refers to the period, beginning as early as the fourteenth century, when the culture of Western civilization made transition from medievalism to modernism. Kirchner says that it dates from 1350 and "was distinguished by a spirit of confidence in man's achievements and possibilities, by an extension of secular activities, of ambition and competition, by a joyful love for worldly attractions, for the beauty of nature, by towering achievements in art, and by a redirection of thought towards rational objectives" (259-60). Kirchner says that the concept of humanism was "basic to the cultural achievements of the Renaissance" (260), and emphasized the dignity of man along classical lines. Significantly, classical literary and artistic study was pursued rather than medieval scholasticism, where the focus was less on man than on God and religion. The Renaissance and the later Northern

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f the word than of the image. Lorenzo is associated with the so-called Platonic Academy, which was originally proposed to Cosimo de' Medici, Lorenzo's father, but which flourished under Lorenzo's patronage as the locus for a revival of Greek studies. According to Hayes, et al., the Academy was "a coterie of scholars rather than an institution" (314), but the designation persists throughout the literature. He also appears to have had a sense of historical and artistic/aesthetic continuity. For example, according to Speake, Lorenzo commissioned one Janus Lascaris to travel to Constantinople (Byzantium) in 1490 to purchase manuscripts of classical Greek literature from monks of that region. The journey took place some fifty years after the final Ottoman conquest of Constantinople. Speake (326-8, 329) suggests that what the purchase accomplished was to provide the Greek monks with needed capital on one hand, but on the other (and more significantly) to assure the preservation and spread of Greek literature in Europe, the Ottoman/Turkish imperial influence having subsumed Greek sensibilities on the ground. Lorenzo's action in commissioning Janus suggests a seriousness of patron purpose behind artistic and scholarly endeavors undertaken

Category: Arts - L