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The Court of Lorenzo the Magnificent Part 4: Angelo Poliziano

Born Agnolo Ambrogini in Montepulciano in 1454, Poliziano rose to intellectual supremacy in Laurentian Florence as the premier Humanist and poet of the Medici court. This episode exlpores his education, life, and works in vernacular Italian, namely his Stanze and l'Orfeo.

Poliziano is inseparable from the larger history of the Medici court. His output is directly tied to Medici family. He was friends with Giuliano and witnessed his murder at the climax of the infamous Pazzi Conspiracy. He was loved by Lucrezia Tornabuoni, but greatly unfavorable in the eyes of Lorenzo's wife, Clarice Orsini. Then, he helped educate the young Michelangelo and even advised on subjects for his earliest works. This discussion looks at these relationships, ultimately arriving at the questionable circumstances of his premature death at the age of forty in 1494.

Works Discussed,

Michelangelo Buonarotti, Battle of the Centaurs, ca. 1492

https://www.casabuonarroti.it/en/museum/collections/michelangelos-works/battle-of-the-centaurs/

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The Court of Lorenzo de' Medici Part 3: Large-Scale Mythological Painting

The 1480's in Florence was an age of relative prosperity under Lorenzo the Magnificent. During this period, the visual arts began to take a new shape. Influenced by both classical and contemporary literature and poetry, Lorenzo's court saw the introduction to large-scale mythological painting, ushered in by the famed Sandro Botticelli.

This episode looks closely at the formation of Botticelli's Birth of Venus, as well as the subsequent Court of Pan by Luca Signorelli in 1490. We discuss the cultural and political circumstances around the development of this new genre of painting, as well as a host of patrons, including the Vespucci family and Lorenzo il Popolano de' Medici. A close look at these works alongside scholarly research reveals a tension between representation and actual cultural attitudes, especially around differentiating between philosophical representation and lived, sensual realities.

Works Discussed:

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, ca. 1485 https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/birth-of-venus

Sandro Botticelli, Venus and Mars, ca. 1485 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sandro-botticelli-venus-and-mars

Luca Signorelli, The Court of Pan, ca. 1490 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Education_of_Pan

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Youtube Videos mentioned for extra information:

Piero di Cosimo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R99_lpzeLzQ&list=PLUejELZ-zvuCN0XSgU-4JoV4ezeU6MBLb&index=4

Luca Signorelli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE3MC80SvHU&list=PLUejELZ-zvuCN0XSgU-4JoV4ezeU6MBLb

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The Court of Lorenzo de' Medici Part 2: Lucrezia Tornabuoni

Lucrezia Tornabuoni (1427-1482) was one of the key figures in both the political and cultural influence of the Medici family during the late 15th century. She served as a diplomat and stateswoman in the place of her ill husband, Piero the Gouty, and helped manage affairs for Lorenzo and Giuliano during their premature rise to power. In addition to her stately duties, Lucrezia was also an important patron and an achieved poet.

This episode looks at the broader scope of Lucrezia's achievements and positions them against the thriving cultural output that occurred during Lorenzo's reign. Importantly, it appears that Lucrezia was not merely the mother of a cultural giant, but directly influenced major cultural shifts in Florence and helped solidify Medici power for her son.

Looking closely at her sacre storie, particularly the violent story of Judith and Holofernes, we can observe Lucrezia as a participant in both skilled literary production and in the propagation of Medici prestige. Her poetry produces the similar effects of Cosimo de' Medici's patronage of Donatello, and his bronze David and Judith and Holofernes that were in the Medici Palace.

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The Court of Lorenzo de' Medici Part 1: Lorenzo the Magnificent

To engage Lorenzo de' Medici's court in Florence, there is no better topic to introduce the subject than the man himself. This episode takes a glance at the life of Lorenzo as a the quintessential "Renaissance Man." In his lifetime, not only was he a devoted head of his family, but a clever statesman, a patron of art, literature, and philosophy, and an exceptional architect and poet.

More masterfully, Lorenzo had to combine all of these to create decades of cultural production which made concrete the fledgling ideas of his grandfather Cosimo into what we define today as the Renaissance. Through his civic engagement, Lorenzo inspired a generation of patronage that would not only inspire Florentines, but the wider world of European nobility.

Central to Lorenzo's narrative is the bloody drama of the Pazzi Conspiracy, the graceful beauty of large-scale mythological painting, and the revival of carnal and evocative vernacular poetry.

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Rome was a neglected swamp when Pope Nicholas V came to power. An extremely well educated humanist, Medici ally, and frequenter of the classicist circles in Florence and Bologna, Nicholas was elected pope in 1447, arriving in a city whose former glory was buried in the mud.

The papacy he inherited was fragile, as it recently endured the relocation from Avignon and the infamous Papal Schism. A relatively peaceful man, Nicholas V was intent on dispelling further papal conflicts and focus on rebuilding the Eternal City. Only through his mass patronage of artists, architects, and bookmakers was Rome able to awake from its slumber, reborn with a new Renaissance skin. This episode looks into the history of Pope Nicholas V, his patronage, and the crucial groundwork he laid for the reconstruction of not only the Vatican and the Apostolic Library, but for all of Rome to prepare itself for the glory of the High Renaissance.

Primary Works Discussed:
Fra Angelico, Niccoline Chapel, 1447-49.

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Lustful, unpredictable, and mischievous, Fra Filippo Lippi is a notorious figure of the Italian Renaissance. This episode surveys his life, looking primarily at three artworks: the San Lorenzo Annunciation, the Double Portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his famous Lippina.

Together, these works uncover a story about a skilled artist, but one who constantly upset his social structure. We use his work to glimpse into the world of Renaissance women, including the nun Lucrezia Buti who he stole from her convent and eventually married. Beyond the works, we explore stories about his turbulent life. Was Fra Filippo really sold as a slave by Barbary pirates? Did Cosimo de' Medici truly lock him in the Palazzo Medici to stop him from womanizing Florence? All of these questions and more are answered.

Works Discussed:

Annunciation, San Lorenzo, ca. 1440
Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement, Met NYC, ca. 1440
Lippina, Uffizi Gallery, ca. 1457-1465

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San Marco, Florence: Nowhere else does the entirety of Renaissance social history converge in such a dynamic way. Upon returning from exile in 1434, Cosimo de' Medici found himself laden with guilt over the means in which his family had acquired their massive fortune. Certainly, with Pope Eugenius IV living in Florence with the Papal Curia, there was no better time for the wealthy banker to invest in religious buildings, namely the convent of San Marco.

On this site, Cosimo de' Medici would display the wide range of his patronage, extending to architecture, painting, and to establishing a public library for the Republic of Florence. This episode analyzes the social and visual components of the reconstruction of San Marco, unpacking the rich symbolism in Michelozzo's structure built to house the vast collection of manuscripts acquired by the humanist Niccolò Niccoli. Then, it looks at the painted decoration of San Marco by the famed Renaissance artist Fra Angelico, deeply considering how painting displays the social structures that enabled their very creation.

Works Discussed:
Michelozzo, San Marco, Florence, 1429-44
Fra Angelico, San Marco Altarpiece, 1438-43

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What does it look like across three mediums when a new style harmonizes, and the conventions of the Middle Ages take a new form? Looking at three diverse artists and three different patrons, as well as an example of painting, sculpture, and architecture, this episode argues for the legibility of new stylistic concepts that constitute the modernity of the 15th century. Ultimately, this interaction gives insight to the intentions of the patrons in question, Cosimo de' Medici, Paolo Guinigi, and the Uzzano family (or Capponi?).

In doing so, works like Michelozzo's Palazzo Medici can be seen in conjunction with Domenico Veneziano's Saint Lucy Altarpiece, or with Jacopo della Quercia's sculptural works. With radical innovation and antique revival at the center, this episode evaluates the artist-patron relationship and the effects of multi-medium stylistic solidification against the Quattrocento public eye.

Works Discussed:
Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici, ca. 1446.
Jacopo della Quercia, Monument to Ilaria del Carretto, 1406.
Domenico Veneziano, Saint Lucy Altarpiece, ca. 1446.

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