The Medici: Heroes of the Renaissance

The Medici was a very interesting documentary due to the fact that I was going in to film not knowing to much about The Medici. The relation of the Medici to Italian mobsters they were not villains of the renaissance they are heros. The Medici were connected with the church, and used their extensive wealth to promote religion. The Medici became powerful as a result of being the official Papal bankers. They used their power and wealth to give back to the church.

Michelangelo under the name of the Medici completed many inspiring pieces of art that would uplift the feel to society. He created the towering statue of David and my name was so famous back then, which became a proud symbol of the city of Florence. Another Medici sponsored artist, Botticelli was famous for a different kind of art. Botticelli’s artwork was sensual , and contained a lot of mythical gods. Venus is known as the goddess of love , and in this painting she is naked emerging from the sea.

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This artwork was popular because it radically celebrated humanism.

Florence, Italy was a city just like any other during the Renaissance. It was a city of 50,000 people, less than there were in Paris and Venice but more than most other European cities. The busiest parts of the city were the Ponte Vecchio, a place lined with markets and houses, the neighborhood of Mercato Vecchio, or Old Market. Florence was a place of beauty and leisure. This was not the first scientific discovery to defy Bible teachings, however it was the most publicised.

This caused society to begin to question the teachings of the Bible, and everything they had been taught. This theme of questioning lead to less loyal followers of the church, and more loyal followers of non-religion based rulers.

The Medici also introduced power through patronage. Rather than fighting to prove power like in the past, the Medici found creating the most beautiful city was just as rewarding. By supporting a questioning society, proving their power through patronizing, and discovering their own ways of gaining power, the Medici changed the political ways of the renaissance. Before the renaissance, the church was the most powerful and controlling leader. Cosimo de Medici, arrested on accusations of treason and banished to Venice. This did not happen without consequences. With Cosimo’s exile he took with him a large source of Florentine capital, the Medici Bank.

The Pope intervened and restored the Medici’s to power. Thus began Cosimo’s restoration of Florentine pride and the support of great artists that many admire today. An example of the Medici support to artists involves The Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. The dome of the chapel was built so large that no architect knew how to complete the rooftop structure and was a humiliating point in Florentine history. A contest to see who could develop a solution to complete the dome was won by a Florentine engineer named Brunelleschi, who felt he had found the solution.