We will be traveling first to the beautiful city of Florence (Firenze in Italian) that is in the heart of Tuscany and a key city in the history of our entire civilization. The day we arrive in Florence, we should take a walk over the Arno River to Oltrarno (the other side of the Arno) to get a good view of the downtown kept remarkably the way it was in the Quattrocento ("kwah-troh-CHEHN-toh), the 1400s, which was the Golden Age of Florence. From the terraced overlook of Piazzale Michelangelo we will see the sea of red-tiled roofs with the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio and the red dome of the Duomo standing out. It will be a great spot to start with a group picture.
We live in the "modern" age and take so much for granted of the culture that we live in. Modern inventions and modern forms of government didn't happen by themselves. Though everything about the "modern age" was certainly not invented in Florence in the 1400s, that was the beginning of a radical new way of seeing the world.
While it's true that the tales of Marco Polo from Venice inspired many Europeans to get on ships and explore the "round" world looking for wealth and adventure, even more substantial changes were sparked by the lives of creative people in Florence. From the 1300s until the 1600s, Florence was "ground zero" for the Renaissance, a French word meaning "rebirth."
What got "re-born"? An awakening to what thinkers and writers in Ancient Greece and Rome had discovered and a desire to build on that. The Church in Rome had discouraged interest in the culture of the "pagans" and found what they had thought either unimportant or threatening. Many daring individuals in Florence questioned the status quo and sought to expand the limits of art, society, and philosophy. This time was a burst of creativity and experimentation as Florentines tried to re-discover man's place in the world. Modern politics, banking, education, art, and religion would not be the same. Most especially, Florence in the 1400s sparked the beginning of the quest for scientific knowledge and the improved technology it brings.
One of the main features you will see in Florence is the large red dome of the Duomo. This cathedral, now adorned in white and green marble, had sat unfinished for a long time until the Florentine architect and engineer, Filippo Brunelleschi (broon-el-ES-kee) decided to build a huge dome. He had studied the arches of ancient Rome and had learned the forgotten engineering they used in building bridges, buildings, and aquaducts. From the later domes of Saint Peter's in Rome, Saint Paul's in London, and even the dome of our national capitol in Washington, D.C. and the golden dome of West Virginia's state capitol, we owe a creative debt to Signor Brunelleschi for building this difficult structure. Brunelleschi had to experiment a lot to figure out a way to keep the weight of the dome from pushing out on the sides and collapsing. He designed a double-shelled dome of bricks he fired himself and used a system of large chains to hold in the walls of the dome like a "belt." He was an intense guy and task-master. He would have food brought up to his masons and other workers so they wouldn't take "long lunch breaks" and thus be inefficent workers.
Brunelleschi's dome was an engineering marvel in the mid-1400s. No such dome had been attempted since the 2nd century in Rome with the Pantheon.
They called Brunelleschi a "madman." But his 270-foot high dome still stands and symbolizes the city.
This sculptured bust of Brunelleschi has him looking up, not only at his dome, but at the future, which many in his city were working to transform. Brunelleschi was also a bit of a rebel. Artists and craftsmen of that time usually stayed within their profession, which was usually what their fathers had done. This was a centuries-old tradition which kept creative men in the confines of their job. They had to join a guild, which was like a trade association or union. Guild members were the ones who could hold office and vote in Florence, as well. Brunelleschi started out as a goldsmith and was a member of that guild, but he branched out into architecture and engineering. Having a variety of skills is something we moderns admire, but working out of your specialty was not well looked-on. Brunelleschi's enemies in the stonemasons' guild had him thrown in jail because he was involved in brick work and had not joined their guild. He only got out because his talents were needed.
Another artistic great of this time and a rivel of Brunelleschi's was Lorenzo Ghiberti (gee-BEHR-tee), who designed the huge bronze doors to the Baptistry of the Duomo. Both Ghiberti and Brunelleschi had collaborated on the dome, but Brunelleschi took charge of the project. They had both gotten the commission to design the doors of the Baptistry, but Brunelleschi didn't want to share the attention. So Brunelleschi dedicated himself to the dome and Ghiberti, who had also entered his award-winning design in a competition, got started on the doors. Ghiberti twice put himself in a spot on the doors, first as a guarded young man, and again as a shrewd and successful older man.
The two sets of doors showed scenes of the Old Testament and the New Testament in high relief (the sculpted figures stand out in 3-D). This may not seem like a big deal to us, but Ghiberti's style was revolutionary at the time. Medieval art had been very focused on the "divine" and key figures of the Bible. Medieval art was also rather flat and 2-dimensional, lacking perspective. Ghiberti's door panels showed scenes from the Bible, but put an emphasis on everyday man's involvement with divine happenings. There was stunning detail, perspective and depth, and an attention to the human body not seen since the art of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
We as moderns, with our televisions, iPods, computers, cell phones are bombarded by electronic digital and print media all the time. Most people were still illiterate at this time and Ghiberti's doors were truly "mass media." They not only told the stories of the Bible in graphic form to the people, so they would remember them, but did so with an aesthetic leap forward that dazzled people of that time. Think of today's technological "cavemen" (like the Suddenlink commercials) who come from using "older media" to be dazzled by newer user-friendly, eye-catching forms of expression. Ghiberti's doors were the "next big thing" of the mid-1400s.
Michelangelo even called them the "Gates of Paradise," a name that still sticks.
Florence in the 1400s was the best-functioning democracy in Europe and proabably, the world, at that time. All men who were members of guilds could be in the signoria (see-nyohr-EE-ah) the "legislature" of the city-state of Florence. They drew time in office by lot and served for only two months at a time. Though that system made it sometimes hard for consistency in administration, it kept individuals from getting too entrenched in power and becoming tyrants. The signoria met in the secon
d most visible building in Florence, the Palazzo Vecchio (pah-LAH-tsoh VEH-kee-oh) or "old palace" with its tall, slendor bell tower. The square (or piazza) in front of it is considered the center of the city. There are many sculptures there, including a replica of Michelangelos's David. A city-state such as Florence had not risen to the level of democracy, culture, wealth, and patronage of the arts since Athens in the mid-400s B.C.
The third most recognized landmark in downtown Florence is the Ponte Vecchio (POHN-teh VEH-kee-oh) or "old bridge" on which many roofed shops and stalls are clustered along the sides of the bridge. Up until the 1400s, butchers, tanners, and blacksmiths had their workshops on the bridge. The most powerful family of Florence in that century, the Medici, found the smell of urine-cured leather, the ringing blows of blacksmiths' hammers and the bloody gore of butchers' shops too unappealing for downtown. So they had those shops moved further out and moved in goldsmiths and jewelers onto the Ponte Vecchio, where they remain until this day.
Downtown is still filled with stalls selling to the public, but these days they tend to cater to tourists (such as ourselves) who walk the cobbled streets and soak up the atmosphere of the Quattrocento.
Another great figure in the story of Florence was Dante Alighieri. (DAHN-teh ah-lee-gee-EHR-ee) who lived a century earlier in the late 1200s and early 1300s. He and other writers of his time transformed literature and put a more human face on it. Dante is considered to be the greatest poet of the Italian language. Indeed, he is in some ways the father of the modern Italian language. In his day, there was no single "Italian" language, just as there was not one "Spanish," "French," or "English." The language of Florence was Tuscan, the dialect of the region of Tuscany. At that time, Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, was the "international language," functioning kind of like English does today. Dante, however, chose to write in Tuscan Italian, thus paving the way for others to see their spoken tongue as worthy of great usage. Dante's Divine Comedy (La Commedia Divina) became the standard by which all Italian was later measured. The Divine Comedy is a tour through the through stages of after-life - Inferno (hell), Purgatorio (purgatory), and Paradiso (Heaven or Paradise). Dante's work makes a good transition from the medieval world with its focus on the afterlife and not on th
is difficult world to a perspective in which Christianity makes life in this world better. Dante's finds himself in a dark forest at the beginning of the story and is led through Hell and Purgatory by the Roman poet Virgil. We see how the rational insight of this ancient "pagan" Roman can shed light on a Christian world view. As Virgil and Dante journey through the different "levels" of Hell and Purgatory, we see how science and religion can be compatible. (It seems like a video game - taking the perspective and challenge "to the next level." Virgil, however, could only take Dante so far. Dante's tour through Heaven was guided by Beatrice, the idealized "love of his life." Though based on a real woman Dante had met, his "Beatrice" embodied all the virtues of a humanity of the highest order.
One can still see the house of the Alighieri family in Florence. Dante himself was rather political and got caught up in the conflict of his time. The Guelphs 
were Italians who supported the Popes' desires to conquer and rule territory. The Ghibellines were those Italians who supported the more secular Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire based in Germany. Usually a city went either way, depending on what the ruling class at the time was. Dante was a Ghibelline and when Florence went "Guelph," Dante had to leave in exile and live and write in the city of Ravenna.
roce is the next most famous church in Florence, mainly for who is buried there. There are tombs or funerary monuments to notable people from the history of Florence such as Dante, Michelangelo, and Galileo. Some modern inventors who are buried there include Eugenio Barsanti, co-inventor of the internal combustion engine, Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of radio, and Enrico Fermi, developer of nuclear reactors.
Here you can see the tomb of Galileo Galilei, the founder of modern experimental scientific investigation. He lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s. We owe a huge debt to Galileo. His passion was astronomy and physics, which got him in trouble with the authorities of the Catholic Church's Inquisition. Galileo was born in Pisa, but moved to Florence with his family as a boy. He was always one to question the way things were. He learned to approach the answers to his questions in an orderly experimental way, an approach which had huge consequences for the way those that followed him advanced scientific knowledge and developed new technology. Galileo built the first refracting telescope, which helped him see so much more clearly what was what in the heavens. Galileo "discovered" the "law" of falling bodies and of the pendulum. These discoveries naturally led him to basically debunk the view that almost everybody held at that time - the Earth was the center of the Universe and the Sun moved around the Earth. Quaint as that may sound to us, to believe otherwise put him in opposition to the Catholic Church, which felt that mankind's nobility (and the Church's power) depend
ed on being at the "center" of all things. The Church and most of the people believed in the model of the universe put forth by Ptolemy in Ancient Egypt. A Polish mathematician, Copernicus, had come up with a theory that the Sun was the center of our planetary system (imagine that!) and that everything revolved around the sun. Galileo agreed with Copernicus and, through his experiments, came up with proof. Still, Galileo got into hot water with the Inquisition and was forced to recant (reject what he had claimed) or die. Galileo gave in but, even still, he lived the rest of his days under house arrest.The 1400s in Florence are really called the "Age of the Medici." (MEH-dee-chee) The Medici were the richest people in Florence and did more than any other family to make Florence what it was. It was a family of bankers. Banks in that time were rather different than now, but the Medici are really the founders of modern banking and finance. Understanding the transition from the medieval world to the modern requires understanding how things got financed. The medieval Christian Church frowned on "usury," the charging of interest for money lent. Therefore, most money-lending was done by Jews, who were not under Christian law. In a trading city such as Florence, many commercial traders came from all over to trade, bringing their own cities' currencies. Florence minted its own coin called the florin, which came to be the most powerful currency on the European continent in the 1400s. At open-air markets, money changers would sit on benches (banca in Italian) and deal in changing other currencies to florins. Hence, these guys became known as bankers, or "bench sitters." Over time, these bankers became quite wealthy and people wanted to borrow money from them and pay interest. It was such a common practice that the Church often turned a blind eye. Indeed, sometimes the Church itself wanted to borrow money to build things and wage wars. (Hypocritical?, well...) Anyway, that's what the Medici family got into in the 1300s and 1400s. And they were the best! And richest! In the early 1400s, Cosimo de Medici, son of Giovanni de Medici, came along and made not only banking, but Florence and European culture strikingly different. Cosimo was a banker and merchant like his father, but also had a passion for the arts and the learni
ng of the ancient world. He once asked his father for money to travel to Jerusalem to buy ancient Greek manuscripts. Giovanni didn't see any sense in this, but Cosimo went anyway. Cosimo became a collector of ancient manuscripts and lover of the arts as well. He drew extremely creative people to Florence, which transformed the look of the city. He also developed banking by coming up with the first traveler's checks so merchants wouldn't have to carry gold coins with them (there are robbers out there!) as well as "branch banking" in all the trade capitals of Europe. Cosimo had his family's house built right in the center of Florence, the Palazzo Medici. Unlike rich people's palaces before, it was not styled as a fortress, to protect its inhabitants from attack, nor did Cosi
mo want a "royal palace" look that flaunted his wealth in the face of the people of Florence. What he had built was a more modest, but artistically rich home designed for peace and good living, as he entertained the rich and powerful of Europe and patronized the arts.
Supper, which is a fresco on the wall of a church in Milan. Leonardo da Vinci came to symbolize the "Renaissance Man," a person who had very broad interests in learning, someone who saw connections in the world between the things of science, music, art, literature, history, engineering, and religion. Indeed, the highest goal of an educated and cultured person today is Leonardo-like in the sense that one goes beyond just learning enough to do a specific job or a narrow specialty. More than a Jack-of-all-trades, a "Renaissance Man" is one who is comfortable in many domains, asks broad interdisciplinary questi
ons, and has the mental flexibility to change as new knowledge is acquired. Though the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are great paintings, perhaps Leonardo's "Vitruvian Man" best symbolizes his philosophical breakthough. This drawing by Leonardo (yes, I know that is the "position"assumed by the murdered curator of the Louvre Museum at the beginning of The Da Vinci Code) shows a male nude in two superimposed positions within a circle and a square. Leonardo based it on his reading of the Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, who made a study of the proportions of the human body and applied it to architectural measurement. Leonardo took it step further and depicted human anatomy as a microcosm and analogy for the workings of the universe. Material existence is symbolized by the square and spiritual existence by the circle.
An equally famous visionary of that time was Michelangelo Buonarroti. He learned his art in the art studios of Florence and drew the attention of Lorenzo de Medici in the 1470s. Michelangelo was a student of human anatomy as well. His attention to the detail of the human form was unprecedented in art. Michelangelo went to Rome when he was 21 ready to make his mark. Florence was at the height of its grandeur, but Michelangelo found a decaying Rome. To his artist's eye, it had been a magnificent city, but now he saw a cattle market in the Roman Forum, squalid taverns and shops in the Colosseum, and thieves in the ancient baths.
emorial. He had Michelangelo sculpt a Pieta, a statue of the Virgin Mary with the dead Christ in her arms. Michelangelo carved a masterpiece which still sits in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Onlookers still stand silent at the beauty of emotion in this marble work. The Pieta (pee-eh-TAH) did wonders for Michelangelo's reputation. He returned to Florence after five years where his "rival" Leonardo da Vinci was w
orking and carved his famous "David." No other statue of the human form is as well known as this nude statue of the Jewish king carved from the white marble of the quarries of Carrara in the mountains to the north of Florence. Michelangelo returned to Rome to work for the new Pope Julius II. Julius was doing for Rome what Cosimo de Medici had done for Florence a half-century earlier, make it into the world's most magnificent city. He attracted the best artists and architects in Italy to do this. Michelangelo wanted to sculpt, but Pope Julius had another job in mind for him, paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a large hall in the Vatican where the cardinals met and new popes were elected. (Look in the next blog posting on Rome to find out more on the Sistine Chapel.)
What sorts of craft items is Florence noted for? It has been famous for leather goods and wool since medieval times. Today, many tourists look for such items, particularly leather, in the shops of Florence.
Another famous Florentine is Niccolo Machiavelli, known as the Father of Modern Political Science. Machiavelli was basically a diplomat who went on missions to other city-states representing the leaders of Florence. His most famous book is The Prince. Machiavelli had a "whatever it takes to get the job done" attitude about political leadership and his reputation in history has become somewhat distorted. In English, "machiavellian" means "cunning and unscrupulous." But in fairness to Machiavelli, he assumed leaders had the best interests of their people in mind, thereby justifying progress for the city-state by any means necessary. He was a "pragmatic" (whatever works) very modern political scientist.
The greatest of the Medici clan was Lorenzo "the Magnificent." Though he died at the early age of 43, he made Florence a truly magnificent place from the early 1470s until 1492. Though he had more of a boxer's nose, he was a lover of the arts and a poet himself. He was witty and knew how to lead, though he tended to neglect the family banking business. Lorenzo knew how to throw a party. His festivals, plays, and tournaments were spectacular. Most spectacular was his wedding in June 1469 to Clarice Orsini, a classy girl from an influential family in Rome. Lorenzo's father Piero had pushed for this marriage to help strengthen ties between the two cities. Six months after the wedding, Piero died and Lorenzo found himself at the age of 20 in a position of leadership in Florence. In the 1470s, Pope Sixtus IV in Rome wanted to expand his territory so that his nephew, Girolamo Riario, could rule a city-state. The Pope asked Lorenzo if the Medici Bank could lend him 40,000 Florins so he could buy the town of Imola, just south of Florence. Lorenzo realized that Imola was important to the communications network of Florence and said no to the Pope. The Pope got angry and took his business to the Medici family's rival in Florence, Francesco de Pazzi (PAH-tsee). This heated up the tension between the Pazzi family and the Medici family. The Pazzis plotted to get rid of Lorenzo and his younger brother Giuliano. They plotted with other conspirators, including a priest and even the archbishop of Pisa. On a Sunday in 1478 as the Medici brothers were in the Cathedral (Duomo) of Florence for High Mass, the conspirators struck. Just at the most solemn moment when the priest held up the Host (the sacramental bread) and bells began to ring, the assassins pulled out their swords. Francesco de Pazzi stabbed Giuliano de Medici, who fell dead in a pool of blood. Lorenzo also took a dagger thrust in the neck, but jumped up and covered his left arm with a cloak as a shield and pulled out his sword. Lorenzo and a few friends fought their way into the Sacristy and barricaded themselves from the attackers. The congregation was shocked at this bloody sacrilege and went wild to avenge the popular Giuliano. The crowd ran down the conspirators and hanged them on the spot, including the archbishop. The Pope was outraged over the "murder" of his archbishop and declared war on Florence. He even got the Southern trading city of Naples to join him for a while. This hurt Florence's trade and Lorenzo had to sell some of his estates to help keep the city running. But he was a clever and charming statesman. He sailed to Naples to confront the brutal King Ferrante. Lorenzo's friends didn't think he would ever return. But Lorenzo persuaded the King of Naples to back away from the Pope and ally with him. Months later, all the Italian states had their hands full with a Turkish siege of Italy. The Pope was forced to come to terms with Florence.
onally held official office. But their presence in the city along the Arno was stongly felt. The main art gallery of Florence today, the Uffizi (oo-FEE-tsee) just means "offices" in Italian. It is situated just between the Palazzo Vecchio and the Ponte Vecchio. It remains as a symbol of the spark that began the Modern Age.
shell, a Christian symbol of baptism and regeneration. Winged zephyrs fly around, a classical equivalent of angels. Just as Noah was clothed by his sons, a nymph holds a garment for Venus, the goddess of beauty. What Botticelli in art and Lorenzo in the Academy were trying to do was harmonize and reconcile pagan myth with Christian faith, science with religion. They saw elements of truth in both. The Pope at the time was unconvinced and, indeed, this controversy in many ways continues to this day.
A fellow Florentine was also unconvinced. A Dominican friar named Girolamo Savonarola had come to Florence in 1489 at the request of Lorenzo. He was a fiery, passionate, charismatic speaker. In a series of sermons he gave during Lent, he told Florentines that their lifestyle was wrong. He disagreed very much with Lorenzo's Academy, saying that the Greek philosophers are all in hell and "that any old woman knows more about the faith than Plato." He invited the Florentines to make "bonfires of the vanities." They were to burn their cosmetics, dice, playing cards, lutes, books of poetry, paintings of women, and other trappings of the Medici Age. Savonarola told them that if they didn't, lightning would strike Florence. Several of Lorenzo's friends of the Academy, including Sandro Botticelli, heeded Savonarola's warnings and left the Academy. Lorenzo was not persuaded by Savonarola, but knew he had to get along with him. He tried making a donation to Savonarola's monastery, which the friar rejected. In the spring of 1492, sick with gout, Lorenzo died. His son Piero was an immature, foolish leader and allowed Florence's defenses to fall. The French King Charles took advantage of the situation and invaded Florence. Piero escaped but the Florentines, fed up with him, ransacked the Medici house and sold its contents at auction. The French King Charles was a very little, shortsighted man who had to be lifted off his horse (like the King in Shrek). To add insult to injury, he briefly took up residence in the Palazzo Medici. 
ldiness Savonarola criticized loudly. The Pope excommunicated him (kicked him out of the Church) and the Florentine people, whose city now lacked the magnificence of the Medici Age, turned on Savonarola as well. He was hanged and burned at the stake in the Piazza della Signoria right beside the Palazzo Vecchio.Here a modern tourist (such as yourself) eyes the spot where Savonarola burned, depicted in the painting above.
No comments:
Post a Comment