The Medici: The Family that Owned the Renaissance
The Medici: The Family that Owned the Renaissance:
“But still the Usurer takes another way:
He scorns nature and her follower, art,
Because he puts his hope in something else.”
- Dante, Canto XVII
Catholic belief in Florence Italy during the Renaissance era was deeply grounded in fear of damnation and purgatory- masterfully illustrated in Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy. His work, divided into three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, explore the varying degrees of punishment that certain sins warrant and dictates how your actions on earth determine the way your soul is treated in the afterlife. Usury was defined as charging high interest on loans, something that both Christ and the Church condemned- a sin that (according to Dante) was punished more severely than murder. Originally published in 1321, The Divine Comedy and its ideals struck terror into the hearts of Catholics, many who turned to the Church in order to save their eternal souls. None had more cause to worry than the Medici family- bankers and moneylenders who rose to prominence in the late 1300's and ruled Florence through their wealth and vast influence in art, trade, and within the Church itself.
The Grandfathers of The Renaissance
The vast breadth of power the Medici family held was mind blowing. By the 1500s, they had provided four popes, two queens of France, and had basically ruled over Florence as the city's primary source of wealth. They had commissioned or financially supported the likes of Michelangelo, Donatello, Botticelli, Da Vinci, Raphael, and Brunelleschi, along with musical composers such as Bartolomeo Cristofori. They had their investments in almost every area of art and expression during the Renaissance, being credited for Donatello's David and Botticelli's Birth of Venus among others. The St. Peter's Basilica and Cistine Chapel can be attributed to their personal relationship and connection to artist Michaelangelo, as well as works that he commissioned directly in their name. The Medici Chapel (New Sacristy) and tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano Medici include his famous designs and sculptures. The family's wealth is hard to grasp even now, their worth amounting to 6.5 quadrillion dollars, adjusted for inflation. They were undoubtedly the most influential family in Florence and perhaps the whole of Italy. But why had these works been commissioned? Why were the Medici family so interested in the arts and spending fortunes during the beginnings and height of the Renaissance? And to be clear, the Medici hadn't come from nobility- where did they come from?
Origins
The Medici that first created his family's bank and accumulated an unseen amount of wealth was Giovanni De Bicci de Medici, a stern man whose capabilities and talents allowed him to maneuver Florentine politics and money. He was born in poverty in the Italian countryside, son to a widow with four brothers, and set up his bank in Florence sometime 1397. His bank had strict rules and was set up in ingenious ways that revolutionized how banking, accounting, and mathematics operated in western Europe. He was also on the committee that commissioned one of the great masterpieces of the Early Renaissance- the brass sculpted doors of the Florence Baptistry of the Baptistry of St. John. This was the earliest evidence of Medici involvement in public art, but it wouldn't be the last. His oldest son, Cosimo Medici (later called Cosimo the Elder) became the head of the most powerful line of the Medici bloodline.
Height Of Power
Cosimo, like most Catholics, worried about the future of his soul. And as a Medici, renowned banker, he feared the holy repercussions of his family's sins. The patronage of arts really began with Cosimo, who among many other works, funded and operated the construction of the San Marco Monastery in Florence. The Medici had a habit of giving money to the Church and often soley funding the establishment and creation of chapels, statues, tombs, and various adornments. Their sins in the eyes of the Church were wiped clean. Cosimo believed that the stain of "usury" given to his family was vanquished. An interesting concept behind the initial start and height of the Renaissance-most of the patrons and investors of painters and sculptors were doing so as connections and donations to The Catholic Church or God himself. An artistic movement focused on improvements and scientific and philosophical advancements, it's often overlooked that a majority of projects were created in the Renaissance under the old superstition and fear of purgatory and eternal punishment. The Medici family soon became masters of manipulating the religious and political fields for their own advantage. Cosimo Medici used his immense fortune in connections with the political landscape of Florence. He was so influential and had become such a spotlight in Florentine politics that he was exiled by his opponents in 1434, under the pretext of attacking liberty and republicanism. His exile didn't last long, and he returned after one year, more powerful than ever. Cosimo continued to prove the power of the Medici, hosting the ecumenical council that hoped to reconcile the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Pope and the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire and patriarch of Constantinople, John VII Paleologos, were guests under the Medici family. A truce was signed to unite the two churches but was later rejected by Byzantine clergy. The mere meeting and pretext in which the Medici exerted influence over the leaders of Europe is evident. Through Cosimo's banking and trade network, his family had become the center of power in Florence. His brother Lorenzo would go on to reign over the Medici bank in Rome, exerting their reach to the Papal states. Cosimo himself died 1464, aged 74, having commissioned the creation of several pieces of art and literature throughout Florence, including the Palazzo Medici, the Magi Chapel, Donatello's David and Judith Slaying Holofernes and the first public library in Florence at the San Marco. Young Cosimo had grown up with only three books and had grown his collection to seventy by the time he was 30, ending up with hundreds by the end of his life. He loved manuscripts and spent a fortune on preserving and obtaining old books and valued the preservation of history concerning ancient Greece and Rome, as well as other aspects of the humanities and philosophies. He commissioned the first full Latin translation of the works of Plato, and he had built churches and monasteries throughout the world, spending millions of dollars in today's money throughout it all. Cosimo was a respectable genius who thrived by earning, spending, and investing, and the wealth and success of the Medici was founded on his legacy.
Lorenzo The Magnificent
Cosimo's grandson Lorenzo would prove to be a true man of the Renaissance, earning himself the title Lorenzo the Magnificent throughout his reign in Florence. He and his brother Giuliano were the heads of power of the Medici family following the death of their father. However, an assassination attempt from the rival Pazzi family ended in Giuliano's death and Lorenzo's near fatal injury. Giuliano had been a faithful commissioner of Botticelli, and after his death, Botticelli painted a public moral of the traitors who had murdered him. Lorenzo himself went on to sponsor and nurture the most famous future artists of the high Renaissance. He himself was a poet and humanist, working to merge works of Greek philosophers with Christianity. The very presence of Greek Classicalism in the Renaissance was instrumental, and the spread of ideas and funding by the Medici family meant that the Renaissance had become more than an art movement, but an intellectual one. Lorenzo opened the Sculpting Gardens in the Palazzo Medici, where young Michelangelo learned and studied crucial practices in art and anatomy. These gardens were a hotspot of intellectual and artistic creations, as well as ideas. Leonardo De Vinci played flute here and was close friends with Lorenzo. Lorenzo helped further his career and pointed him in the direction of commissions and sponsors, as well as guiding him in the subjects of art and expression. Very deserving of his title, Lorenzo proved magnificent as seen through the massive contributions he made during the peak of the Renaissance in Florence. The Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, the Basilica of Santa Maria, the Sacristy of Santo Spirito, and two Medici tombs are all credited to Lorenzo, as well as numerous sculptures, artwork, vases, and paintings made in this era. Lorenzo was prideful in just how much his family spent on the arts, music, architecture and humanities. For a Medici, there were no regrets.
Political Rise and Fall
The Medici family had always been front and center of Florentine politics. After Lorenzo the Magnificent died in 1492, it was an of a long era of stability, as the Medici began to experience exile, a loss of influence, persecution, and eventually, the extinction of their bloodline. The French and Austrian-Hungarian threat was a constant issue, as French invasions of Florence started as early as 1494, two years after the death of Lorenzo. The Medici gained their power back, lost it again, and through the workings of the church and the other branches of the family, managed to hang onto power in and out of the Renaissance, but by the time Cosimo III came along in the late 1600s, the Medici were bankrupt. But they had been a powerful family, source of uprisings in Europe, and the pillar of the Renaissance itself. This isn't the post to go into the exact process of events that caused the decline of the Medici, but one important figure was Catherine de Medici, Queen of France. I will write about her alone, since she is one of my favorite historical women.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
The Medici were arguably the roots of the Renaissance. They were the reason why artists like Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Botticelli thrived in Florence, and why Florence was the center of the artistic and intellectual movement that changed our view of mankind and expression forever. The Medici, since the settlement of Giovanni in the 1300s, shaped the landscape of Florence and were the wealthiest bankers in Europe. They had branches across the continent and flourished in their hometown, practically shaping and upholding the economy itself. When the Medici fell, so did Florence, and the prestige of the Renaissance and Italy. Producing queens, popes, artists, historians, merchants, cardinals and dukes, the Medici prove to be one of the most underrated families in history. Their coat of arms is still visible all across the streets of Florence today, and we can thank them for most of the artistic and architectural wonder that was produced during the Renaissance. What they didn't commission, they influenced, and without them, we might not be the society we are today. What started as a move to save their souls, blossomed into the greatest show of patronage in history. In regards to the Renaissance, the Medici proved to be the patrons of not just art, but of life and beauty itself.
Sources
Convent of San Marco - Florence. (n.d.). http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/museum_of_san_marco.html
Gardens in Tuscany | Garden of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Firenze. (n.d.). http://www.travelingintuscany.com/gardens/mediciriccardigarden.htm
Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent: the astounding life of the ‘delightful tyrant’ of Florence. (2024, October 11). HistoryExtra. https://www.historyextra.com/period/renaissance/lorenzo-de-medici-the-magnificent-facts-life-death-patronage-pazzi-conspiracy/
Martinez, J. (2024, February 8). The Medici Family: ultimate power and legacy in the Renaissance. TheCollector. https://www.thecollector.com/the-medici-family-legacy/
M.S. Rau. (2024, December 3). How the Medici Family Changed History. https://rauantiques.com/blogs/canvases-carats-and-curiosities/how-the-medici-family-changed-history
THE FIRST MEDICI IN FLORENCE. The Medici Family Florence. (n.d.). https://www.yourwaytoflorence.com/db/medici/medici1.htm
The history of the Medici Family, Murders, Mysteries in Florence. (n.d.). https://www.emotionsinflorence.com/blog/medici-family-of-florence.html
 |
| House of Medici, Wikipedia Commons |
Comments
Post a Comment