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by Anthony Molho
FLORENCE AND HUMANISM
For
most people the word Renaissance brings to mind great works of art and
literature produced in 15th century Italy. It is only natural, then, for us to have a look at some of the
ideas of the writers and artists who worked in Florence during the
Renaissance. But we shall not limit
ourselves solely to the greatness of art and writing. Other kinds of changes were taking place in Florentine life as
well. We shall also ask whether there
was any relation between the vast growth of Florentine business, on the one
hand, and the brilliant products of the city's writers and artists, on the
other. Did the merchants and bankers play
any part in the rise of Florentine cultural life?
HUMANISM AND THE REVIVAL OF ANCIENT LEARNING
We
must first note that the Renaissance was set apart from the Middle Ages by the
appearance of a unique ideal-humanism.
Humanism meant two things: the revival of interest in the ancient
culture of the Greeks and Romans, and a new interest in the individual
as a human being.
Greek and Roman culture was created, for the most
part, in the atmosphere of cities.
During the Middle Ages, cities disappeared or declined throughout
Europe. In Italy, however, the center
of, the old Roman world, a number of cities still remained.
By the 13th century, cities were flourishing again in
many parts of Europe. With growth came
the problems that plague cities in all times and places. Educated Italians began to see that the same
problems had perplexed ancient people.
And it was easy to believe that the Romans and. Greeks had solved their, problems
satisfactorily. So, Renaissance
Italians began to study the great collections of ancient Roman law. These offered ideas for coping with the
confused political, social, and economic problems that confronted the growing
Italian cities. Soon some Italians
decided they could find guidance for solving their problems only in the
writings of ancient authors.
It is hard for us to imagine the zest with which
Italians turned to the study of ancient texts.
People spent lifetimes in the search for the long-lost works of Greece
and Rome. Many writings had been
forgotten for centuries in dusty monastic libraries. When an important text came to light, it was greeted with joy by
dozens of other eager searchers.
Everyone was sure there was important and valuable wisdom in it. When, for example, the Florentine scholar
Poggio Bracciolini stumbled on a manuscript of Quintilian's essay, Training of
an Orator, he exclaimed in a letter to a friend:
I truly believe that, had we not come to the rescue,
this man Quintilian must speedily have perished; for it cannot be imagined that
a man magnificent, polished, elegant, urbane and witty could much longer have
endured the squalor of the prison house in which I found him.
Admiration for antiquity-for the days of ancient
Greece and Rome-did not stop with the search for ancient writings. Most people with education came to believe
that the ancients had reached the very highest level of culture. Only after recapturing and imitating that
culture could the civilization of Italy progress.
In their effort to achieve the level of ancient
culture, Florentines and other Italians worked out a new system of education in
the 14th and 15th centuries. The
curriculum came to be known as studia humanitatis, or, as we say in our
schools, the humanities. These studies
began with the mastery of ancient Latin and Greek. To understand an ancient writer, one must know precisely how he
used his words. The cornerstone of an education
was language study and the study of the history of antiquity. Scholars who were devoted themselves to
these subjects were known as humanists.
Humanistic studies were thought to make individuals who undertook them
better human beings.
Along with the study of ancient writings came the
other special aspect of humanism, a new interest in human beings
themselves. Medieval thinking had put
great emphasis on life after death.
Life on earth was seen as a preparation for the life to come. It was the task of the church to guide
humanity toward that eternal life.
Although the humanists continued to think as Christians, they put their
emphasis on humanity. (Homo, meaning
"man" in Latin, is the word from which humanities is derived.)
Humanists paid greater attention than had the medieval thinkers to human beings
in the here and now. Humanists were
interested in human beings as individuals, in their education, in the full and
well-rounded life they could live here on earth. Humanists did not idealize the monk's withdrawal from the world.
The ancient writers of Greece and Rome had also
emphasized the individual. Italian
merchants found it easy to sympathize with the humanist attitude toward
people. Had not many of them become
wealthy simply by their own individual efforts? We shall see to what lengths Renaissance Florentines carried
these ideas and into what a variety of fields.
HUMANIST WRITING
Humanist
writings at first glance seem a continuation of medieval writing. Educated medieval people read and wrote in
Latin. They were familiar with some of
the ancient authors. Nor was the
literature of the Middle Ages entirely religious. Yet, as we study the work -of the small number of Florentines who
gave the humanist movement its tone and direction, we shall soon see that they
developed something new.
Literary Humanism: Petrarch
Foremost
among the humanist writers of Florence was Francesco Petrarca (1304-74). To us he is known by his Anglicized name,
Petrarch. He was a poet at heart and a
scholar by profession. He scorned the
many people of his day, who, he thought, blindly followed in the footsteps of
their nearest ancestors. They could not
see that ancient culture, though more distant in time, was far more meaningful
and exciting than that of the Middle Ages.
He regretted the tendency of many learned people to attend only to the
study of science. "What is the
use, I beseech you," he asked, “of knowing the nature of quadrupeds,
fowls, fishes, and serpents, and not knowing or even neglecting man's nature,
the purpose for which we are born, and whence and whereto we travel?" He
believed that the best way to understand human nature was to concentrate on the
study of people of the past. Their
experiences might show people of the present some of the vast
possibilities. open to human beings on
this earth.
Petrarch dedicated himself to the study of ancient
texts. He particularly admired the
Roman writer Cicero. Petrarch was
perhaps the first European in over 1,000 years able to write the elegant and
expressive Latin common in ancient times.
He thought that every educated person had the duty to speak and write
simply, clearly, and elegantly. He
advised his friends to acquire a better understanding of language. He urged them to express themselves with
precision, for “the style is the man." Careless expression reflects
careless thought.
Petrarch gained great popularity during his life, He
was invited to visit cities in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. He was widely admired both as a writer and a
scholar. Thanks to him, all sides of
the study of antiquity gained widespread acceptance and popularity among
important Italians. Petrarch, it can be
said without much exaggeration, singlehandedly revived interest in the
classics. He succeeded in presenting to
the people of his day an appealing image of antiquity.
Civic Humanism: Salutati and Bruni
Petrarch's
teachings had a wide influence. In the
last decades of the 14th century and the first of the 15th, a group of educated
young Florentines began to apply his ideas to problems arising in the
city. Two of these men, Coluccio
Salutati (1331-1406) and, Leonardo
Bruni (1369-1444), can serve as examples.
Both were born outside Florence but came there early in their careers
and thought of themselves as Florentines.
Each had a permanent office in the government. In addition to official duties, they built up an informal group
of scholars and others to discuss matters of joint interest and concern.
One topic of discussion was the right way to look at
monasticism. In the Middle Ages people
felt that the life led by nuns and monks was superior to and purer than that of
other people. It was considered
pleasing to God for people to withdraw from the world and devote their time to
thought and prayer.
Salutati and Bruni believed that the monastic life was
less worthy than a life spent out in the world. "Man vocation is terrestrial," warned Salutati. He believed that it is the duty of people
not to isolate themselves from their society but rather to immerse themselves
in it. When a friend began to talk of
entering a monastery, Salutati wrote him a pointed letter:
Do you think that by escaping the crowd, by avoiding
the beautiful things of this life, by closing yourself in a monastery ... you will be pursuing the life of perfection?
By laboring, serving, by caring for your family, your sons, relatives, friends,
by serving your country you cannot fail but elevate your heart to the skies and
please God.
This
was a new vision of the nature of humankind and of its mission on earth. The whole range of human activities was
shown to be valuable and ennobling. To
have a family and children, to earn money, to become involved in the politics
of one's country were activities fit for a human being. Salutati and Bruni thus offered the people
of their time another ideal of life, just as worthy and pleasing to God as the
life of the nun or monk was considered to be in the Middle Ages.
Another example of the humanism of Salutati and Bruni
concerns the individual Florentine's relation to the state. In the late 14th and-early 15th centuries,
Florence was at war with Milan and Naples.
Salutati and Bruni believed these wars were a great struggle between the
republican form of government and the greedy signori. The two men wanted to prove the superiority of republics. Like good humanists, they searched Roman
history for proof of that greater worth.
They found it in the history of the last years of the Roma republic and
the first years of the empire.
Christian thinkers, especially those of the Middle
Ages, had always looked with favor on Julius Caesar (died 44 B.C.). By destroying the Roman republic he made it
possible to set up the empire. During
the reign of Augustus, Caesar's successor, Jesus was born. In the early years of the empire,
Christianity gained many converts in each of the Roman provinces. Christian scholars believed that the triumph
of Christianity could only have come about in the stability, peace, and
prosperity that flourished under the empire.
Salutati and Bruni, studying the same segment of
history while their own state was fighting for its life, found a new way of
looking at Roman history. They became
convinced that great cultural vigor was to be found under republican rule. The decline of Roman civilization seemed to
them to set in soon after the empire was founded. Caesar, far from being a great hero, was thus seen as a traitor,
for he had destroyed Rome's liberty.
After his time it was possible for unworthy military leaders to become
emperors. As long as Rome was a
republic, as long, that is, as the state was governed by its laws and not by
the whims of single men, Romans were free.
Their freedom was destroyed when Caesar came to power.
Saluted and Bruni applied this new view of Roman
history to the events of their own day.
Florence stood for liberty, for the rule of law, for the equality of all
citizens in the eyes of the law. It was
this basic fact, they argued, that put Florence in a place morally superior to
that of its enemies. In a funeral oration
at the death of a Florentine soldier killed in battle, Bruni exclaimed:
Equal liberty exists for all.... The hope of winning public honors and
ascending is the same for all, provided they possess industry and natural gifts
and lead a serious minded and respected way of life.... Whoever has qualifications is thought to be
of sufficiently noble birth to participate in the government of the
republic.... This, then, is liberty,
this equality in the commonwealth: not to have to fear violence or wrongdoing
from anybody, and to enjoy equality among the citizens before the law and in
the participation of public offices.
We know that Bruni's claims were
exaggerated. We know that only a
minority of Florentines were able to take part in politics. But Bruni had sensed an important
relationship. This relationship
concerned the political rights of citizens and the citizens' attitude toward
the government. Where the rule of law
exists, people feel free. For that
reason they are more willing to help their state. "For where men are given the hope of attaining honor in the
state," Bruni said, "they take courage and raise themselves up to a
higher plane; where they are deprived of that hope, they grow idle and lose
strength."
These few examples of the work of
humanist writers and thinkers give us a sense of the movement. There were only a few humanists in the
population of Florence, or elsewhere in Italy.
But they were inspired by a great ideal. By striving to reproduce what they believed to be the values of
Greek and Roman society, they hoped to acquire those same virtues for their own
states. Humanists were to be found
among many sorts of educated people.
Historians, poets, educators, statesmen accepted humanist ideals. But here we look only at one other field,
that of humanist art.
HUMANIST ART
Florentine
humanist writers dealt with the problems of actual life as they saw it about
them. So, too, a group of Florentine
artists tried to represent people as real human beings. These artists accepted the humanist idea
that the individual human p attention.
This attitude was a break with the past, for medieval artists had a
quite, different point of view.
During the Middle Ages most art was religious. Small paintings illustrated religious
books. Sculpture decorated churches and
explained the Christian message. But
neither painting nor sculpture needed to be realistic. There were accepted patterns
for-representing people and events from the Bible or the lives of the
saints. Anyone who looked at a painting,
say of the crucifixion of Christ, would understand it because the figure's would
be arranged in the accepted way. The:
artist was, not attempting to create a realistic scene. He was bringing to the mind of anyone seeing
the, picture the whole religious significance of the event. Medieval architecture had similar
purposes. The great cathedrals of,
northern Europe, with their spires reaching into, the clouds, reminded the
Christian of his or her insignificance before God and of God's boundless power.
Realistic Naturalism: Giotto
The
Florentine artist Giotto (c.
1276-1337), just 30 years older than Petrarch, inspired the revolution
in painting. He did not desire to break
with the medieval art tradition entirely.
The dozens of his paintings that survive all deal with religious
subjects. But instead of painting in
the traditional manner, Giotto tried to treat his subjects so that they would
seem to be real people, moving about in physical space. He also wanted them to express feeling and
emotion. His famous picture of removing
Christ's body from the cross, for example, shows a scene of high drama and
pathos. There is no question but that
this scene could have actually taken place.
The people in the painting could be real people. Each of them has a personality. Giotto also made an effort to capture the
background-the space against which the entire scene was taking place.
Giotto's
efforts closely resembled those of Petrarch and the other humanist
writers. Both he and they tried to show
people in realistic terms. Both
believed that nature was governed by precise and changeless laws. It was, the artist's duty to discover these
laws. With them he could recapture on
canvas or on stone the scene he wished to represent. The painter, said the 15th-century Florentine painter and
architect Leon Batiste Alberti ”must imitate nature." Artists who do not imitate nature "will
certainly acquire bad habits, which later they can never abandon, with all the
good intention in the world. But he who
will accustom himself to take from nature whatever he does, will make his hand
so practiced that whatever he does will always seem taken from life." Later in the 15th century Leonardo da Vinci
echoed this same idea by warning young painters that "the painter strives
and competes with nature."
Discovery of Perspective: Brunelleschi and Masaccio
In
the first 30 years of the 15th century, Florentine artists completed and
refined the revolution in art begun by Giotto.
The first steps were taken by three men who knew each other well. They were the painter Masaccio, the sculptor
Donatello, and the architect
Brunelleschi. Perhaps no other trio in
the modern history of Europe did more to reshape the methods and objectives of
art. These men had certain assets that
deeply influenced their work. Giotto's
painting was an inspiration to all three.
They were all determined to follow in his tradition of showing people
and nature in a realistic fashion. They
took ancient art as a model; all three studied ancient ruins with great
care. All three realized that to
complete the work begun by Giotto, they had to discover and understand the
scientific laws governing nature. Only
then could they paint and sculpt realistically. Finally, and this perhaps is the most important point, all three
were men of very great genius.
The great technical problem all three tried to solve
was how to create the illusion of depth in painting. Canvas and walls are two-dimensional but what the eye sees in
real life has three dimensions. This
problem was ignored or unsolved by the ancients, and not fully mastered by
Giotto. It was left to Brunelleschi, a
mathematician by training, to figure out a solution. He worked up a series of simple mathematical formulas and
principles that enabled a painter to show figures moving in space away from the
viewer. Brunelleschi's discovery of
perspective made it possible for artists to create the illusion of depth on a
flat, two-dimensional surface. The
results were indeed spectacular.
The advantages of the new technique became clear
during the mid-1420's. Masaccio did
some paintings in a small church in Florence: Santa Maria del Carmine. Having learned from his friend Brunelleschi
the secrets perspective, he painted a series of scenes from the history of the
Church. One of Masaccio's paintings
shows Adam and Eve driven from Paradise.
Anguished and ashamed because of their sinful action, they walk from the
simple and scarcely visible gate of Paradise.
Hovering above them in the background is the angel ordering them
away. The sense that Adam and Eve are
outside Paradise, walking away from it, is accomplished through the use of
perspective. In this painting, as in
many of his others, Masaccio used perspective to accentuate the drama of the
story and make it more meaningful to the viewer.
The Nobility of the Human Form: Donatello
The
third of the famous trio, Donatello, achieved quite a great result in sculpture. As a young man he went to Rome, where he saw
statues from ancient Rome and Greece.
For him the visit was a great revelation. In medieval statues the human form was hidden behind heavy or
even clumsy drapery. The nude statues
of antiquity revealed the human form simply and eloquently. The ancient artists seemed to praise the
human form. Donatello resolved to use
the techniques and seek the spirit of ancient art. His marvelous statue of David shows a young, naked boy proudly
standing over the head of Goliath.
Donatello seems to insisting on the nobility of the human form. Men and women are endowed with body as well
as spirit. They must be proud of both.
The Diary of Gregorio Dati
(How do you think Dati’s interests
and way of living differed from that of the Renaissance artists described in
the text?)
In the name of God, his
Mother and all the Saints of Paradise, I shall begin this book wherein I shall
set forth an account of our activities so as to have a record of them, and
wherein having once more and always invoked the name of God, I shall record the
secret affairs of our company and their progress from year to year. This ledger belongs to Goro, son of Stagio
Dati, and I shall call it the secret ledger.
I was born on 15 April
1362....
On 15 April 1375, when I had
learned enough arithmetic, I went to work in the silk merchant's shop belonging
to Giovanni di Giano and his partners.
I was thirteen years old and I won their esteem....
On 1 January 1385, Giovanni
di Giano and his partners made me a partner in their silk business for as long
as it may please God. I am to invest
300 gold florins which I have not got, being actually in debt to the
business. However, with God's help, I
hope to have the money shortly and am to receive two out of every twenty-four
shares, in other words, a twelfth of the total profit. We settled our accounts on 8 June 1387, on
Giovanni de Giano's death. May he rest
in peace. My share of the profits for
the two years and five months I had been a partner came to 468 gold florins, 7
soldi a fiorino [29 soldi a fiorino equalled one gold florin]. Thanks be to God. We formed a new partnership....
On 1 January 1393, we
dissolved the company and Michele di Ser Parente withdrew all his
investments. My profit was reckoned as
1,416 florins, 21 soldi a fiorino, and 60 florins were paid for Simone's
salary....
Recommending ourselves to
God and good fortune, we set up a new company for a year, starting on 1 January
1393. ...
May the Lord bless our
enterprise....
I set out for Valencia in
September 1393 in order to wind up matters there but did not get beyond
Genoa. When 1reached the Riviera, I was
set upon and robbed by a gallery from Briganzone and returned to Florence on 14
December, having lost 250 florins' worth of pearls, merchandise and clothes
belonging to myself, and 300 gold florins' worth of the company's property.
On 1 January 1394, we drew
up our balance sheet and my profit came to 162 florins, 2 soldi a fiorino. We renewed our partnership for another year
and made a few changes....
I record that on 1 February
[1394] 1 withdrew from the partnership with Buonacorse Berardi and did business
on my own this year. I bought goods and
sent them to Simone in Valencia, lent money to friends in Pisa and elsewhere,
received goods from Valencia for sale here and continued like this for eight
months until the beginning of October.
I did very well during this period.
I have not kept accounts but earned and spent on my own. Yet I can see that the transactions I
carried out have been successful....
And once more in God's name
I have formed a partnership with Michele di Ser Parente from 1 October 1395....
[1405] I served among the
Ten on Liberty [a magistracy whose primary function was to settle quarrels
between citizens]. My term began on 1
April and ran four months.... I pleased
everyone and acted rightly as I was able.
I was Guild Consul for the
third time from 1 May of the same year.
With me were Zanobi di Ser Gino, Agnolo di Ghezzo, Noze Manetti, and
Agnolo di Filippo di Ser Giovanni [Pandolfini].
I began proceedings against
Messer Giovanni Serristori and Company on the ... of September before the Merchants' Court. I was reluctant to do this but had no
choice. I had suffered grievous harm in
spirit and pocket and was likely to be ruined if I did not defend myself. God bring me safely out of this
Architecture on a Human Scale: The Pazzi Chapel
This
attempt to present a unified image of the human being was most dramatically
illustrated in the work of Brunelleschi.
He was not only an architect but also a sculptor, an engineer, and a
mathematician. His great engineering
skill had been proven in the 1420's. At
that time he designed and oversaw the construction of the dome to enclose the
great space over the Duomo's choir.
This dome was at the time the largest freestanding one since
antiquity. It was larger than the dome
of the Roman temple of the Pantheon which had inspired Brunelleschi during his
visit to Rome.
It was in a much smaller building, a little chapel, that
the likenesses between Brunelleschi and his two good friends can best be
seen. The Pazzi banking family
commissioned him to design the chapel.
It stands next to the huge Gothic church of Santa Croce. The contrast between the imposing church of
the Franciscans and the little chapel a few yards away is striking in
itself. But even more striking is the
difference in the feelings and emotions which the interior of each structure
evokes in the visitor. Santa Croce-with
its high vaults, its pointed arches, the great size of its columns -induces in
the viewer a feeling of awe. As
visitors enter the door their thoughts may well focus on the vast power of the
Church and the mystery of the Christian religion. They tend to lose sight of themselves, their individuality, the
measure of their own humanity.
The Pazzi Chapel has precisely the opposite
effect. In it worshippers feel like
human beings. Size is not the only
difference between the two buildings.
By combining columns and arches in a completely original way,
Brunelleschi achieved an effect of lightness and grace completely new to his
time. Natural light comes into the
building through small windows in the ceiling and large ones on the front
walls. The interior is bright and well
proportioned. It is dominated by white
walls on which two geometric patterns-the square and the circle repeat, as if
to emphasize the regularity of the design.
In the Pazzi Chapel Brunelleschi designed a, building with proportions that
fit the human scale. These proportions
are intended to make visitors to the chapel conscious of their powers as full,
moral, thinking persons. The light is
clear, nothing seems mysterious. The
building's dimensions suggest that here is a place for human beings. In the Middle Ages a church was considered
the home of God. The Pazzi Chapel seems
to have been designed for people and to make them feel comfortable as they say
their prayers. Not the Almighty but His
creature, the human being, is to take possession of this building. Better than any other monument of the time,
perhaps even more clearly than the painting of Masaccio and the sculpture of
Donatello, the Pazzi Chapel seems to be an assertion of human dignity.
HUMANISM AND FLORENCE
Historians
have puzzled about the causes of the unusual flow of talent and ideas in
Florence in the 14th and 15th centuries.
It is striking that so many new ways of creating-painting, sculpture,
architecture, poetry, education, the writing of history, among others-were
introduced in Florence in the 1300's and 1400's. How is one to explain so much talent in so small a city?
Some scholars think that what happened in Florence was
just an accident. The same reason is
often put forth for the brilliance of Athens under Pericles in the 5th century
B.C. And much was alike in the two
cities. Both had from 50,000 to 100,000
people. Each had gained the political
and economic 'control of its region, which numbered about a quarter of a million
people. A broadly based aristocracy
ruled in each. And just as Athens was
the cultural center of its time, Florence was supreme in the world of thought
in 15th-century Europe.
Today, historians tend to say that every society has a
number of outstanding minds. But not
all these people are permitted or encouraged by the conditions of the times to
reach their full capacity. We shall try
to identify those forces in early Renaissance Florence that encouraged the
truly original and brilliant people of the day to make full use of their powers
to create.
The Commercial Atmosphere
The
life of merchants and bankers was itself an important factor. Merchants led anxious and unsettled
lives. Often they had to go to distant
lands to do business with people of many backgrounds and outlooks. Florentine commerce, as we have noted, spread
from Africa and the Middle East to England and Scandinavia. Florentine merchants had to deal with
Greeks, Arabs, Turks, Jews, Slavs, and Persians in the East. They dealt with Germans, Hungarians, French,
English, and Scandinavians in the North.
Florentines served as bankers to popes, kings, and princes. It was natural that they should develop a
sharp sense of competition. They had an
awareness of the risks and dangers that were a part of their occupations. The tensions under which they worked give rise
to a keen sense of quality and a cautiously optimistic outlook toward the
world. These two qualities helped
provide Florence with an atmosphere favorable to art and literature.
Dealing as they did with merchants of so many nations,
Florentines had to be always on the alert to the chance of being swindled. Goods had to be examined for defects, prices
must be bargained, and in many foreign tongues. The "keen eyes and sharp tongues" of Florentine
merchants were well known throughout Europe.
Through their keen eyes the merchants acquired an appreciation of the
concrete qualities of the goods they traded.
Small telltale details easily overlooked by others might mean that a
barrel of wine was of excellent quality.
Or they might mean that a shipment of wool or spices was defective and
not worth the price. Many attitudes
learned in the world of trade were carried over into the daily lives and mental
habits of these men. Particularly, the
emphasis on the concrete was a part of their thinking. Witness, for example, Giovanni Morelli's
description of a beautiful aunt of his:
She was a woman of medium height, with an
exquisitely beautiful skin of white complexion, with blond hair, and a very
fine figure; so beautiful was she that she seemed to be an ornament. And among her other beautiful
characteristics, she had hands seemed made of ivory, so well formed were they,
that one would think them painted by the great painter Giotto: they were just
the right size, and soft; her fingers were long and well formed as if they were
candles, while her nails, which were also long and well formed, were of a clear
and vermillion color.
Descriptions
of this kind reflect the, Florentine emphasis on the specific. This quality characterized much of the art
produced in the city during the Renaissance.
Financial Support
A
more down-to-earth reason for the growth of art in Florence was the ease with
which artists could find well-paid employment.
In Chapter 1 we noted efforts to beautify Florence and to decorate it
with attractive buildings. Artists were
hired by the government and the guilds for this work. The Palazzo dei Signori and the Duomo are good examples of
government and guild patronage of the arts.
The great painter and architect Giotto, and his friend and fellow
architect Arnolfo, and the modest decorators, sculptors, masons, and smiths
were all paid by the state or the guilds for their work on these
buildings. The enormous commissions
awarded by the Wool Guild for the completion of the cathedral, and for its
decoration, were a great stimulus to the development of art in Florence. From about 1375 to 1440 dozens of artists
found sponsors ready to support them.
In later years there were fewer government projects. But rich individuals needed artists to build
and decorate their palaces. Perhaps
more than anywhere else in Europe at that time, an ambitious young painter,
sculptor, or architect knew that his talent would be appreciated and paid for
in Florence.
The Guild Workshops
Another
situation existed in Florence that helped attract talented young people. Because Florentine artists were thought of
as artisans, each was a member of one of the 21 guilds. Usually the most famous artists eventually
became guild masters. Masters had
workshops where young apprentices learned the secrets of the trade. Student apprentices came to Florence from
all corners of Italy to study in the workshops of great masters. Great artists could impart their skill, if
not their genius, to their apprentices.
Thus the guild system fostered the great traditions of art.
The ideas born in Renaissance Florence had a great
impact outside the city. In addition to
creating new business methods, the people of Florence produced an atmosphere in
which great writers and artists flourished.
Their masterpieces were an inspiration and model for generations to
come. It is easy to see why Florence
was the leading Renaissance city for many decades. 