FLOWERING OF THE RENAISSANCE 089
CONTEXT A powerful dynasty
1434 Cosimo de’ Medici returns from
Florence and the Medici exile in Venice and assumes power in
Florence. He funds many public building
projects in Florence, earning him the title
pater patriae (father of his country).
Often called “the cradle of the Renaissance”, scholar, and collector of antiquities, he
1444 Having amassed a fortune as a
the city of Florence was home to many of the maintained relative political stability and
condottiere (mercenary commander),
innovations and cultural achievements of the patronized major artists. Federico da Montefeltro becomes Duke
15th century. Despite the plagues of the Science and art came together in one of the of Urbino, establishing a cultured “ideal
mid-14th century, which had devastated its lasting legacies of the Renaissance – perspective. city” that attracts scholars and artists
population, Florence was the most prosperous A mathematical system for representing three- including Alberti and Piero della Francesca.
city in Italy, with its own gold currency, the dimensional space on a flat surface, linear 1469 Lorenzo de’ Medici assumes
florin. Developments in architecture, science, perspective was developed by the Florentine power in Florence. He rules until his
art, philosophy, and literature thrived there as architect Filippo Brunelleschi and fellow-architect death in 1492, when his son Piero
succeeds him.
politicians, architects, artists, and scholars and writer Leon Battista Alberti. While
exchanged and explored ideas. mathematics was the basis of linear perspective, 1494 French troops under Charles VIII
Although technically a republic, 15th-century it also underpinned the ideal of beauty that invade Italy, beginning a period of warfare
Florence was dominated by a single family – found expression in quattrocento painting. The that lasts until 1559. The Medici are
expelled from Florence.
the Medici, who were great patrons of classical ancient idea of “divine proportion” was revived
learning and the arts. A wealthy family of at this time, and mathematical ratios (based on 1498 The influential preacher Girolamo
bankers and merchants, they gained power the human body) were used to create architecture Savonarola, an outspoken critic of the
Medici and of Church corruption, is
through political astuteness rather than force. and paintings with harmonious proportions that executed in Florence for heresy.
They ousted rival ruling families the Albizzi and were thought to echo the God-given geometry
KEY EVENTS
Savonarola’s preaching about the
the Strozzi in 1434 and remained in power until of the universe. Quattrocento artists, including role of art influenced many artists
exiled in 1494, later returning to power in 1512. Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca, were including Botticelli, Fra Bartolommeo,
Lorenzo de’ Medici, known as Lorenzo the fascinated by mathematical perspective, and and Michelangelo.
Magnificent (1449–92), played a pivotal role Piero wrote treatises on both perspective
in Renaissance Florence: diplomat, poet, and the science of optics.
THE MOST GLORIOUS
CITY, RENOWNED
FOR ITS WEALTH,
VICTORIES, ARTS
AND ARCHITECTURE,
ENJOYED SALUBRITY
AND PEACE
Unknown
Description of Florence, inscribed on a fresco
by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Quattrocento Florence
This bird’s-eye view shows Florence dominated by
the huge Cathedral dome designed by Brunelleschi.
Alberti wrote that it was “a structure so immense ...
that it covers all Tuscans with its shadow”.
