Florence
The principal Tuscan city, Florence (Firenze) is the world’s most celebrated storehouse of Renaissance art and architecture. Set on the banks of the Arno below the wooded foothills of the Appennines, this beautiful city has long been the focus of Italian arts and letters. Alberti, Boccaccio, Botticelli, Brunelleschi, Dante, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, Masaccio, Michelangelo, Petrarch and Vasari are among the many associated with establishing the pre-eminence of the city. Brunelleschi’s revolutionary design for the dome of the Duomo (Cathedral) is generally accepted as the first expression of Renaissance ideas in architecture. This dome still dominates the city’s roofscape, just as the great Piazza del Duomo at its feet dominates life at street level. The square is ringed with cafés and is a popular meeting point. Between there and the river are many of the best-loved palazzi (palaces), whilst close by to the north are the churches of San Lorenzo and Santa Maria Novella. The shop-lined Ponte Vecchio bridge scans the river to arrive at Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens.
The Uffizi Gallery houses one of the world’s most celebrated art collections including masterpieces such as Botticelli’s Birth Of Venus, Caravaggio’s Young Bacchus, Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation, Michelangelo’s Holy Family and Titian’s Urbino Venus. Some of the country’s most important sculptures are found within the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, notably works by Michelangelo and Donatello. Michelangelo’s famous statue of David may be viewed at the Accademia di Belle Arti near the University.
Economy
From 1300 to 1500 Florence's history is rich in economic developments. The era witnessed several public finance experiments, such as new taxation systems and government borrowing undertaken by the Florentine government to raise its revenues. Different political regimes ruled Florence. The corporate system of the craft guilds underwent significant changes during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Moreover, famines and repeated episodes of plague, such as the Black Death of 1348 that killed a third of the Florentine population, produced dramatic demographic shocks that affected the economy. In the 1400s Florence, being a republic with an elected government, differed markedly in its social customs from those European political centers that were ruled by royal courts. As may be seen by the simple clothing; Florentine citizens tended to restrict their attire to basic tones of red, brown, gray, or black-even though luxury textiles were a mainstay of their thriving economy. Florentine men, no matter how wealthy, donned the tunics and caps of middle-class merchants. In keeping with the city's taste for republican humility, even Florentine women rarely dressed in the rich brocades and damasks used by noblewomen in Italian duchies or principalities.
In the Renaissance period Florence was one of the most powerful and influential of those states. The wealthy and powerful de' Medici family ruled the city almost continuously from 1434 to 1743 and had a great influence on the architecture and arts. They built an abundance of palaces all over the city and commissioned such artists as Michelangelo to design and decorate these and other buildings.The Renaissance economy has interesting insights for today's economies with regards to the effects of government taxation and borrowing on savings behavior and wealth accumulation.It's fair to say that Florence's economy in the new Millenium is as strong as ever. The local economy is supported by tourism, industries such as textile, metalwork, pharmaceuticals, glass and ceramics, and chemistry and on Florentine craft such as jewelry and embroidery. The top designers of Milan use the textile factories of Florence for the execution of their designs. Gold working has been perfected over the centuries in workshops near the Ponte Vecchio, where jewelry is produced that is sold throughout Europe. Visitors will find a beautiful assortment of leather goods, including shoes, as well. Marbled paper, handmade perfumes and toiletries, decorative ceramic pieces, and sculpture are also locally produced.
Famous People in Florence
Leonardo Da Vinci
Born on April 15, 1452, in Vinci, just outside Florence, Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a 25-year-old notary, Ser Piero, and a peasant girl, Caterina. Growing up in his father's Vinci home, Leonardo had access to scholarly texts and was also exposed to Vinci's longstanding painting tradition, and when he was about 15 his father apprenticed him to the renowned workshop of Andrea del Verrochio in Florence, where he was an apprentice until 1477 when he set up a shingle for himself.
In search of new challenges and money, he entered the service of the Duke of Milan in 1482, abandoning his first commission in Florence, "The Adoration of the Magi". He spent 17 years in Milan, leaving only after Duke Ludovico Sforza's fall from power in 1499. It was during these years that Leonardo reached new heights of scientific and artistic achievement, painting and sculpting and designing elaborate court festivals and designing weapons, buildings and machinery. His studies from this period contain designs for advanced weapons, including a tank and other war vehicles, various combat devices, and submarines. Also during this period, Leonardo produced his first anatomical studies.
After the invasion by the French and Ludovico Sforza's fall from power in 1499, Leonardo was left to search for a new patron and over the next 16 years, Leonardo worked and traveled throughout Italy for a number of employers. About 1503, Leonardo reportedly began work on the "Mona Lisa".
From 1513 to 1516, he worked in Rome, maintaining a workshop and undertaking a variety of projects for the Pope. He continued his studies of human anatomy and physiology, but the Pope forbade him from dissecting cadavers.
Following the death of his patron Giuliano de' Medici in March 1516, he was offered the title of Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect of the King by Francis I in France. Although suffering from a paralysis of the right hand, Leonardo was still able to draw and teach. He produced studies for the Virgin Mary from "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne", studies of cats, horses, dragons, St. George, anatomical studies, studies on the nature of water, drawings of the Deluge, and of various machines.
Leonardo died on May 2, 1519 in Cloux, France. Legend has it that King Francis was at his side when he died, cradling Leonardo's head in his arms.
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475 in Caprese, Italy. At the age of 13, he was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio, from whom he learned the technique of fresco; he would use this technique many years later in his work in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. At the age of fifteen, Michelangelo began to spend time in the home and gardens of Lorenzo de' Medici, where he studied sculpture under Bertoldo di Giovanni. Michelangelo was to be a protégé of the Medici family for the rest of his life, even when he fought against them during the famous siege of Florence in 1530.
It was during this time that he completed the Madonna of the Stairs and the Battle of the Centaurs. Due to the political climate in Florence Michelangelo left the city, and went to Rome where he carved the Bacchus and then the Pietà, which is in St. Peter's basilica in Rome.
Michelangelo returned to Florence where he began work on the David. Called the "Giant" by his fellow Florentines, this statue was completed in 1504 and can now be found in the Accademia gallery in Florence. During this same time period, Michelangelo produced several Madonnas; including the painting the Holy Family, a statue of the Madonna and Child and two marble reliefs, the Taddei tondo and the Pitti tondo.
Michelangelo was called to Rome by Pope Julius II to create a tomb for him which was to contain forty lifesize figures, an endeavor that was never fully realized as in 1508, Michelangelo began work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes. Following Julius' death in 1513, he worked for Pope Leo X, Lorenzo de' Medici's son. At the Medici family's parish church, San Lorenzo, Michelangelo created tombs for Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici II and designed the Laurentian library, an annex to San Lorenzo.
In 1534, Michelangelo left Florence for Rome, where he was to spend the remainder of his life. He returned to the Sistine Chapel where he created the Last Judgment on the end wall and designed the dome for St. Peter's and the Capitoline Square. His last paintings were the frescoes of the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican. Michelangelo died on February 18, 1564.
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