Importance of Florentine Medici Family in Renaissance Art Essay

Introduction

Florentine`s is a member of the royal medic family who had a significant influence all over Europe. The European culture of art flourished in the time of Florentine Medici family, and its writers and artists were well recognized. Therefore, as a result of these factors, the Florentine Medici family was considered very crucial to renaissance art.

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Also, the Medici family manage to rule the city of Florence throughout the renaissance period. The family of Florentine was a significant influence on the growth and development of the Italian Renaissance art and architecture through their patronage of arts and humanism. More so, the Medici family was being considered as the wool merchants and bankers. As a result of the successful business activities carried out by the Medici family, they realized high profits hence became extremely wealthy. Giovanni de Medici is the first ruler of Florence city who brought the Medici family to prominence by commencing the Medici bank.

The son of Giovanni de Medici who is known Cosimo de Medici later became the Gran maestro in 1434 in the Florence state. The Medici family ruled the Florence state for the next two hundred years until 1737. The patronage of the arts of Medici family has made them the most famous in the Florence state. Patronage is a situation where a wealthy person like the Medici family sponsors artists (Parks, 2013). The commissions were being paid to artists for the major works of art. Hence, the Medici patronage had a considerable effect on the renaissance which allows the artists to remained focus on their work without having to worry about finance since the family was ready to sponsor.

What happened to Florentine culturally and artistically during the early Renaissance?

The significant quantity of art and architecture that was established in the Florence at the commence of the Renaissance was as a result of the Medici family. The Medici family earlier on funded the painter Masaccio and assisted in paying the architect Brunelleschi to rebuild the Basilica of San Lorenzo. There are other famous artists that the Medici family funded renaissance of art include Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, and Leonardo da Vinci. As much as the family supports the art and architecture, it also supported science in the Renaissance period. The family helped the well-known scientist Galileo Galilei in his scientific work.

Importance of the Renaissance period of Western art

Humanism was considered as the unique idea that gives the difference of the Renaissance from the Middle Ages. The popular belief of that period was that the humanists of the Renaissance era managed to rediscover the Greek and Latin texts. Thus, the texts rediscovered include the concept of "rebirth" and "renaissance" of the classical world. More so, the humanists created the European Renaissance hence paved the way for the modern and secular art in the world.

According to the humanistic school, humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that insists on the value and agency of human beings either individually or collectively. Francesco Petrarca is the father of Humanism, and he was born in 1304 near Florence city. He was the great philosopher and poet thinker under which the renaissance spirit took form. The state of Florence became the hub of humanistic study in the peak of Renaissance, and the Medici family take on as the city of Florence Flourished in art, architecture, literature and even the learning of Classics, wealth and politics. The Medici family is portrayed as the synonymous to the Italian Renaissance (Parks, 2013). Notably, the family dominated the Florentine Culture for almost 300 years even though they were not the official rulers of the state since the power and economic structure depend entirely on trade and banking.

The past years before renaissance commence in Florence city, Italy and most parts of Europe suffered a lot. The plague and the wars had severely reduced the population, but recovery came finally after severe chaos. Some of the changes in the early renaissances were the expansion of trade, and the cities were developing faster and growing wealthier. Hence, renaissance marked the commencement of a new era of rebirth for culture, art, and science.

The renaissance is believed to be a period of fundamental cultural changes and artistic achievements, and hence it set a clear transition between the modern pre-industrial and the middle ages Era. However, the debate of the exact commence of renaissance is still among the historian, but it is considered to have begun in Italy Florence city in the 25th century. The revival was noticed when there was a combination of events that lead to a burst of artistic creation and humanist thinking.

During the renaissance time, art and science were very closely related. Science enables art to discover new techniques and designs of architecture. Leonardo da Vinci who was the great artist's study anatomy as a science which was meant to understand the body well, so assists to establish better paintings and sculptures (Strathern, 2018). Filippo Brunelleschi who is an architect advance in math to design buildings and create more attractive arts. Therefore, the real true geniuses of the renaissance time were the scientists and artists and both were being considered as the talents of true Renaissance man.

During the renaissance period in the city of Florence, the painters embraced physical realism and classicism. In the early Renaissance which was led by the Florentine Medici family was the formative era. Hence, the techniques of objectivity and physical realism were initially refined and established by the early Renaissance artist. Brunelleschi comes up with the mathematical laws of linear perspective, and on the other side, Alberti developed a practical system which was to be applied to painting. Thus, the system was to be refined throughout the Renaissance and was finally allowed the establishment of precise 3-dimensional illusions on the flat surfaces of painting.

Artists who took part in the development of early Renaissance art

In the Florence city, Masaccio was the founder of Renaissance painting, Giotto`s was the greatest successor in the contest for realistic perspective, emotion, and modeling (Strathern, 2018). Giotto introduced pictorial which can be seen in his altarpiece which was established for the temple of Ognissanti in Florence. The Giotto`s figures of art have a solidity and weight on them, and thus, many art historians viewed Giotto as the father of Italian renaissance because of his innovations in architecture. The interventions especially evident many of his fresco cycles. Moreover, Duccio was considered as the prominent painter of pre-renaissance from Siena, and their paintings were similar of the art of Florence. Also, Cimabue led the art and architecture movement in 12th-century that was to renew the pictorial vocabulary and break the rigidity of Byzantine art.

Conclusion

In conclusions, Giotto, Cimabue, and Duccio are all exploring the psychology of art and architecture in the Florence city of the designs and figures they are painting. Hence, in the Florence city, it has been evident that the ideas of Renaissance humanism are seriously taking hold in the society.

References

Parks, T. (2013). Medici Money: Banking, metaphysics, and art in fifteenth-century Florence. London: Profile.

Strathern, P. (2018). The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance.