Florence Program

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Ten Generations of Medici Patronage

Instructor: Janet Smith
Elective course, 4 credits

For over three centuries the Medici family dominated almost every aspect of life in Florence. This course will observe how the Medici used the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture to promote themselves, slowly undermining the republican government and turning Tuscany into a personal duchy. Artists such as Donatello, Michelozzo, Verrocchio, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Giuliano da San Gallo, Michelangelo, Cellini and Vasari will play important roles in students’ presentations.

Above: Lorenzo di Medici (center) with artists. The young Michelangelo is on the far right.

Other types of Medici patronage will also be considered. The family sponsored humanist scholars, such as Ficino and Poliziano, financed musicians, composers and the Cathedral choir, and participated in religious confraternities. Cosimo il Vecchio, Lorenzo il Magnifico and Grand Duke Cosimo I will be protagonists. Works of art commissioned by two Medici popes, Leo X and Clement VII, will be studied in Florence and during the field trip to Rome. You will read recent scholarship that shows how Medici women also contributed to the family patronage system.

Most classes will be held on site. Some background in Italian Renaissance history and/or art history would be useful for this course.

Go to the next course: Studio Art: Drawing the Human Figure
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