✍️✍️✍️ Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art

This movement had started in Italy with the decisive influence of Dante Alighieri on the development of vernacular languages; in fact the focus on writing in Italian has neglected a major source of Florentine ideas expressed in Latin. Many young Hungarians studying at Personal Narrative: A Day At Wilsons House universities came closer to the Florentine humanist center, so a direct Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art with Florence evolved. Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance ArtAnalysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art. Random House. Antonino Raspanti, trans. Although in practice these were oligarchicaland bore little resemblance to a modern democracy Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art, they did have democratic features and were responsive states, with forms Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art participation in governance and belief in liberty. Braziller, Acceptance of Renaissance art was Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art by the continuous arrival of humanist thought in the country. A suitable environment had developed to question classical Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art doctrine.

Humanism in the Renaissance

It was not just the growing awareness of classical antiquity that drove this development, according to Vasari, but also the growing desire to study and imitate nature. In the 15th century, the Renaissance spread rapidly from its birthplace in Florence to the rest of Italy and soon to the rest of Europe. The invention of the printing press by German printer Johannes Gutenberg allowed the rapid transmission of these new ideas. As it spread, its ideas diversified and changed, being adapted to local culture. In the 20th century, scholars began to break the Renaissance into regional and national movements.

The word "Renaissance" is borrowed from the French language, where it means "re-birth". It was first used in the eighteenth century and was later popularized by French historian Jules Michelet — in his work, Histoire de France History of France. A factor that promoted the spread of secularism was the inability of the Church to offer assistance against the Black Death.

Francis I imported Italian art and artists, including Leonardo da Vinci , and built ornate palaces at great expense. Though she became famous and infamous for her role in France's religious wars, she made a direct contribution in bringing arts, sciences, and music including the origins of ballet to the French court from her native Florence. In the second half of the 15th century, the Renaissance spirit spread to Germany and the Low Countries , where the development of the printing press ca. In the early Protestant areas of the country humanism became closely linked to the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, and the art and writing of the German Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute. After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared.

The relationship between Hungarian and Italian Gothic styles was a second reason—exaggerated breakthrough of walls is avoided, preferring clean and light structures. The new Italian trend combined with existing national traditions to create a particular local Renaissance art. Acceptance of Renaissance art was furthered by the continuous arrival of humanist thought in the country. Many young Hungarians studying at Italian universities came closer to the Florentine humanist center, so a direct connection with Florence evolved. The growing number of Italian traders moving to Hungary, specially to Buda , helped this process.

King Matthias Corvinus r. After the marriage in of King Matthias to Beatrice of Naples , Buda became one of the most important artistic centers of the Renaissance north of the Alps. Matthias Corvinus's library, the Bibliotheca Corviniana , was Europe's greatest collections of secular books: historical chronicles, philosophic and scientific works in the 15th century. His library was second only in size to the Vatican Library. However, the Vatican Library mainly contained Bibles and religious materials. Matthias started at least two major building projects. Matthias enjoyed the company of Humanists and had lively discussions on various topics with them. Culture in the Netherlands at the end of the 15th century was influenced by the Italian Renaissance through trade via Bruges , which made Flanders wealthy.

Its nobles commissioned artists who became known across Europe. In art, Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting ranged from the strange work of Hieronymus Bosch [] to the everyday life depictions of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. While Renaissance ideas were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous southward spread of some areas of innovation, particularly in music.

At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a center of musical innovation, with the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian School , which spread northward into Germany around The paintings of the Italian Renaissance differed from those of the Northern Renaissance. Italian Renaissance artists were among the first to paint secular scenes, breaking away from the purely religious art of medieval painters. Later, the works of Pieter Bruegel influenced artists to paint scenes of daily life rather than religious or classical themes. It was also during the Northern Renaissance that Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected the oil painting technique, which enabled artists to produce strong colors on a hard surface that could survive for centuries.

This movement had started in Italy with the decisive influence of Dante Alighieri on the development of vernacular languages; in fact the focus on writing in Italian has neglected a major source of Florentine ideas expressed in Latin. An early Italian humanist who came to Poland in the midth century was Filippo Buonaccorsi. Ruled by the Jagiellon dynasty , the Kingdom of Poland from known as the Polish—Lithuanian Commonwealth actively participated in the broad European Renaissance. The multi-national Polish state experienced a substantial period of cultural growth thanks in part to a century without major wars — aside from conflicts in the sparsely populated eastern and southern borderlands. The Reformation spread peacefully throughout the country giving rise to the Polish Brethren , while living conditions improved, cities grew, and exports of agricultural products enriched the population, especially the nobility szlachta who gained dominance in the new political system of Golden Liberty.

The Polish Renaissance architecture has three periods of development. The greatest monument of this style in the territory of the former Duchy of Pomerania is the Ducal Castle in Szczecin. Although Italian Renaissance had a modest impact in Portuguese arts, Portugal was influential in broadening the European worldview, [] stimulating humanist inquiry. Renaissance arrived through the influence of wealthy Italian and Flemish merchants who invested in the profitable commerce overseas. In architecture, the huge profits of the spice trade financed a sumptuous composite style in the first decades of the 16th century, the Manueline , incorporating maritime elements.

There was no Renaissance in Russia in the original sense of the term. Renaissance trends from Italy and Central Europe influenced Russia in many ways. Their influence was rather limited, however, due to the large distances between Russia and the main European cultural centers and the strong adherence of Russians to their Orthodox traditions and Byzantine legacy.

Prince Ivan III introduced Renaissance architecture to Russia by inviting a number of architects from Italy , who brought new construction techniques and some Renaissance style elements with them, while in general following the traditional designs of Russian architecture. In the Bolognese architect Aristotele Fioravanti came to rebuild the Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin , which had been damaged in an earthquake. Fioravanti was given the 12th-century Vladimir Cathedral as a model, and he produced a design combining traditional Russian style with a Renaissance sense of spaciousness, proportion and symmetry.

In Ivan III commissioned the building of the royal residence, Terem Palace , within the Kremlin, with Aloisio da Milano as the architect of the first three floors. He and other Italian architects also contributed to the construction of the Kremlin walls and towers. The small banquet hall of the Russian Tsars , called the Palace of Facets because of its facetted upper story, is the work of two Italians, Marco Ruffo and Pietro Solario , and shows a more Italian style.

He may have been the Venetian sculptor, Alevisio Lamberti da Montagne. He built twelve churches for Ivan III, including the Cathedral of the Archangel , a building remarkable for the successful blending of Russian tradition, Orthodox requirements and Renaissance style. It is believed that the Cathedral of the Metropolitan Peter in Vysokopetrovsky Monastery , another work of Aleviz Novyi, later served as an inspiration for the so-called octagon-on-tetragon architectural form in the Moscow Baroque of the late 17th century.

Between the early 16th and the late 17th centuries, an original tradition of stone tented roof architecture developed in Russia. It was quite unique and different from the contemporary Renaissance architecture elsewhere in Europe, though some research terms the style 'Russian Gothic' and compares it with the European Gothic architecture of the earlier period. The Italians, with their advanced technology, may have influenced the invention of the stone tented roof the wooden tents were known in Russia and Europe long before.

According to one hypothesis, an Italian architect called Petrok Maly may have been an author of the Ascension Church in Kolomenskoye , one of the earliest and most prominent tented roof churches. By the 17th century the influence of Renaissance painting resulted in Russian icons becoming slightly more realistic, while still following most of the old icon painting canons , as seen in the works of Bogdan Saltanov , Simon Ushakov , Gury Nikitin , Karp Zolotaryov , and other Russian artists of the era. In the mid 16th-century Russians adopted printing from Central Europe, with Ivan Fyodorov being the first known Russian printer. In the 17th century printing became widespread, and woodcuts became especially popular. That led to the development of a special form of folk art known as lubok printing, which persisted in Russia well into the 19th century.

A number of technologies from the European Renaissance period were adopted by Russia rather early and subsequently perfected to become a part of a strong domestic tradition. Mostly these were military technologies, such as cannon casting adopted by at least the 15th century. The Tsar Cannon , which is the world's largest bombard by caliber , is a masterpiece of Russian cannon making. It was cast in by Andrey Chokhov and is notable for its rich, decorative relief. Another technology, that according to one hypothesis originally was brought from Europe by the Italians , resulted in the development of vodka , the national beverage of Russia.

As early as Genoese ambassadors brought the first aqua vitae "water of life" to Moscow and presented it to Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. The Genoese likely developed this beverage with the help of the alchemists of Provence , who used an Arab -invented distillation apparatus to convert grape must into alcohol. A Moscovite monk called Isidore used this technology to produce the first original Russian vodka c. The Renaissance arrived in the Iberian peninsula through the Mediterranean possessions of the Aragonese Crown and the city of Valencia.

In the Kingdom of Castile , the early Renaissance was heavily influenced by the Italian humanism, starting with writers and poets such as the Marquis of Santillana , who introduced the new Italian poetry to Spain in the early 15th century. Miguel de Cervantes 's masterpiece Don Quixote is credited as the first Western novel. The Italian artist and critic Giorgio Vasari — first used the term rinascita in his book The Lives of the Artists published In the book Vasari attempted to define what he described as a break with the barbarities of Gothic art : the arts he held had fallen into decay with the collapse of the Roman Empire and only the Tuscan artists, beginning with Cimabue — and Giotto — began to reverse this decline in the arts.

Vasari saw ancient art as central to the rebirth of Italian art. However, only in the 19th century did the French word renaissance achieve popularity in describing the self-conscious cultural movement based on revival of Roman models that began in the late 13th century. French historian Jules Michelet — defined "The Renaissance" in his work Histoire de France as an entire historical period, whereas previously it had been used in a more limited sense. He asserted that it spanned the period from Columbus to Copernicus to Galileo ; that is, from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century.

The Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt — in his The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy , by contrast, defined the Renaissance as the period between Giotto and Michelangelo in Italy, that is, the 14th to midth centuries. He saw in the Renaissance the emergence of the modern spirit of individuality , which the Middle Ages had stifled. More recently, some historians have been much less keen to define the Renaissance as a historical age, or even as a coherent cultural movement.

Rather than a period with definitive beginnings and endings and consistent content in between, the Renaissance can be and occasionally has been seen as a movement of practices and ideas to which specific groups and identifiable persons variously responded in different times and places. It would be in this sense a network of diverse, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting cultures, not a single, time-bound culture. There is debate about the extent to which the Renaissance improved on the culture of the Middle Ages. Both Michelet and Burckhardt were keen to describe the progress made in the Renaissance towards the modern age.

Burckhardt likened the change to a veil being removed from man's eyes, allowing him to see clearly. In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness — that which was turned within as that which was turned without — lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen clad in strange hues. On the other hand, many historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly associated with the medieval period—poverty, warfare, religious and political persecution, for example—seem to have worsened in this era, which saw the rise of Machiavellian politics , the Wars of Religion , the corrupt Borgia Popes , and the intensified witch hunts of the 16th century.

Many people who lived during the Renaissance did not view it as the " golden age " imagined by certain 19th-century authors, but were concerned by these social maladies. Johan Huizinga — acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned whether it was a positive change. In his book The Autumn of the Middle Ages , he argued that the Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages , destroying much that was important. The Renaissance obsession with classical purity halted its further evolution and saw Latin revert to its classical form. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a period of deep economic recession.

Some historians have begun to consider the word Renaissance to be unnecessarily loaded, implying an unambiguously positive rebirth from the supposedly more primitive " Dark Ages ", the Middle Ages. Most historians now prefer to use the term " early modern " for this period, a more neutral designation that highlights the period as a transitional one between the Middle Ages and the modern era. The art historian Erwin Panofsky observed of this resistance to the concept of "Renaissance":. It is perhaps no accident that the factuality of the Italian Renaissance has been most vigorously questioned by those who are not obliged to take a professional interest in the aesthetic aspects of civilization — historians of economic and social developments, political and religious situations, and, most particularly, natural science — but only exceptionally by students of literature and hardly ever by historians of Art.

The term Renaissance has also been used to define periods outside of the 15th and 16th centuries. Charles H. Haskins — , for example, made a case for a Renaissance of the 12th century. Other periods of cultural rebirth have also been termed "renaissances", such as the Bengal Renaissance , Tamil Renaissance , Nepal Bhasa renaissance , al-Nahda or the Harlem Renaissance. The term can also be used in cinema.

In animation, the Disney Renaissance is a period that spanned the years from to which saw the studio return to the level of quality not witnessed since their Golden Age or Animation. The San Francisco Renaissance was a vibrant period of exploratory poetry and fiction writing in that city in the midth century. Rapid accumulation of knowledge, which has characterized the development of science since the 17th century, had never occurred before that time.

The new kind of scientific activity emerged only in a few countries of Western Europe, and it was restricted to that small area for about two hundred years. Since the 19th century, scientific knowledge has been assimilated by the rest of the world. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. European cultural period of the 14th to 17th century. This article is about the European Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries. For the earlier European Renaissance, see Renaissance of the 12th century.

For other uses, see Renaissance disambiguation. The School of Athens — , Raphael. Main article: Italian Renaissance. Main article: Black Death. See also: Islamic influences on Western art. Main articles: History of science in the Renaissance and Renaissance technology. See also: Medical Renaissance. Further information: Age of Discovery. Main article: Renaissance music.

See also: Renaissance dance and List of Renaissance composers. Main article: English Renaissance. Main articles: French Renaissance and French Renaissance architecture. Main articles: German Renaissance and Weser Renaissance. Further information: Renaissance architecture in Central and Eastern Europe. Main article: Northern Renaissance. Main article: Renaissance in Poland. The golden-domed chapel was designed by Bartolommeo Berrecci. Main article: Portuguese Renaissance. Main article: Spanish Renaissance. See also: Spanish Renaissance architecture. See also: Continuity thesis. Society portal Arts portal. This, however, was not the practice. Donations were often received, but only mandated by individuals that were condemned.

Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3rd ed. Pearson Longman. ISBN Retrieved July 31, Or between Petrarch and Jonathan Swift , an even longer period. See Rosalie L. Colie quoted in Hageman, Elizabeth H. Another source dates it from to "Renaissance Era Dates". Reaktion Books. London: Morre. The exterior of the church was reworked in Romanesque style between and In , Florence was a " commune ", meaning a city state. The city's primary resource was the Arno river , providing power and access for the industry mainly textile industry , and access to the Mediterranean sea for international trade.

Another great source of strength was its industrious merchant community. The Florentine merchant banking skills became recognised in Europe after they brought decisive financial innovation e. This period also saw the eclipse of Florence's formerly powerful rival Pisa defeated by Genoa in and subjugated by Florence in , and the exercise of power by the mercantile elite following an anti-aristocratic movement, led by Giano della Bella, that resulted in a set of laws called the Ordinances of Justice At the height of demographic expansion around , the urban population may have been as great as ,, and the rural population around the city was probably close to , After their suppression, Florence came under the sway — of the Albizzi family, who became bitter rivals of the Medici.

In the 15th century, Florence was among the largest cities in Europe, with a population of 60,, and was considered rich and economically successful. Although the city was technically a democracy of sorts, his power came from a vast patronage network along with his alliance to the new immigrants, the gente nuova new people. The fact that the Medici were bankers to the pope also contributed to their ascendancy. Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero , who was, soon after, succeeded by Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo in Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo , Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. Lorenzo was an accomplished poet and musician and brought composers and singers to Florence, including Alexander Agricola , Johannes Ghiselin , and Heinrich Isaac.

By contemporary Florentines and since , he was known as "Lorenzo the Magnificent" Lorenzo il Magnifico. But when he realised the size of the French army at the gates of Pisa, he had to accept the humiliating conditions of the French king. These made the Florentines rebel, and they expelled Piero II. With his exile in , the first period of Medici rule ended with the restoration of a republican government. During this period, the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola had become prior of the San Marco monastery in He was famed for his penitential sermons, lambasting what he viewed as widespread immorality and attachment to material riches.

He praised the exile of the Medici as the work of God, punishing them for their decadence. He seized the opportunity to carry through political reforms leading to a more democratic rule. But when Savonarola publicly accused Pope Alexander VI of corruption, he was banned from speaking in public. When he broke this ban, he was excommunicated. The Florentines, tired of his teachings, turned against him and arrested him. He was convicted as a heretic and burned at the stake on the Piazza della Signoria on 23 May Machiavelli was a political thinker, renowned for his political handbook The Prince , which is about ruling and exercising power. Commissioned by the Medici, Machiavelli also wrote the Florentine Histories , the history of the city.

In , the Medici retook control of Florence with the help of Spanish and Papal troops. Both were generous patrons of the arts, commissioning works like Michelangelo 's Laurentian Library and Medici Chapel in Florence, to name just two. The Medici's monarchy would last over two centuries. The extinction of the Medici dynasty and the accession in of Francis Stephen , duke of Lorraine and husband of Maria Theresa of Austria , led to Tuscany's temporary inclusion in the territories of the Austrian crown.

It became a secundogeniture of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, who were deposed for the House of Bourbon-Parma in From to Florence was the capital of the Napoleonic client state Kingdom of Etruria. The Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty was restored on the throne of Tuscany at the Congress of Vienna but finally deposed in Tuscany became a region of the Kingdom of Italy in Florence replaced Turin as Italy's capital in and, in an effort to modernise the city, the old market in the Piazza del Mercato Vecchio and many medieval houses were pulled down and replaced by a more formal street plan with newer houses.

The Piazza first renamed Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II , then Piazza della Repubblica , the present name was significantly widened and a large triumphal arch was constructed at the west end. This development was unpopular and was prevented from continuing by the efforts of several British and American people living in the city. The country's second capital city was superseded by Rome six years later, after the withdrawal of the French troops allowed the capture of Rome.

Hitler declared it an open city on 3 July as troops of the British 8th Army closed in. However, at the last moment Charles Steinhauslin, at the time consul of 26 countries in Florence, convinced the German general in Italy that the Ponte Vecchio was not to be destroyed due to its historical value. Since then the bridges have been restored to their original forms using as many of the remaining materials as possible, but the buildings surrounding the Ponte Vecchio have been rebuilt in a style combining the old with modern design. Shortly before leaving Florence, as they knew that they would soon have to retreat, the Germans executed many freedom fighters and political opponents publicly, in streets and squares including the Piazza Santo Spirito.

The first American university for service personnel was established in June at the School of Aeronautics in Florence, Italy. Some 7, soldier-students were to pass through the university during its four one-month sessions see G. American Universities. In November , the Arno flooded parts of the centre, damaging many art treasures. Around the city there are tiny placards on the walls noting where the flood waters reached at their highest point. The Arno river , three other minor rivers Mugnone, [31] Ema and Greve and some streams flow through it.

Florence has a humid subtropical climate Cfa , tending to Mediterranean Csa. As Florence lacks a prevailing wind, summer temperatures are higher than along the coast. Rainfall in summer is convectional , while relief rainfall dominates in the winter. Snow flurries occur almost every year, [34] but often result in no accumulation. The legislative body of the municipality is the City Council Consiglio Comunale , which is composed of 36 councillors elected every five years with a proportional system, at the same time as the mayoral elections. The executive body is the City Committee Giunta Comunale , composed of 7 assessors , nominated and presided over by a directly elected Mayor. The current mayor of Florence is Dario Nardella. The municipality of Florence is subdivided into five administrative Boroughs Quartieri.

Each borough is governed by a Council Consiglio and a President, elected at the same time as the city mayor. The urban organisation is governed by the Italian Constitution art. The boroughs have the power to advise the Mayor with nonbinding opinions on a large spectrum of topics environment, construction, public health, local markets and exercise the functions delegated to them by the City Council; in addition they are supplied with an autonomous funding in order to finance local activities.

The boroughs are:. All of the five boroughs are governed by the Democratic Party. Florence is known as the "cradle of the Renaissance" la culla del Rinascimento for its monuments, churches, and buildings. The best-known site of Florence is the domed cathedral of the city, Santa Maria del Fiore , known as The Duomo , whose dome was built by Filippo Brunelleschi. The nearby Campanile partly designed by Giotto and the Baptistery buildings are also highlights. The dome, years after its completion, is still the largest dome built in brick and mortar in the world. At the heart of the city, in Piazza della Signoria , is Bartolomeo Ammannati 's Fountain of Neptune — , which is a masterpiece of marble sculpture at the terminus of a still functioning Roman aqueduct.

The layout and structure of Florence in many ways harkens back to the Roman era, where it was designed as a garrison settlement. The Palazzo Vecchio as well as the Duomo, or the city's Cathedral, are the two buildings which dominate Florence's skyline. The river Arno, which cuts through the old part of the city, is as much a character in Florentine history as many of the people who lived there. Historically, the locals have had a love-hate relationship with the Arno — which alternated between nourishing the city with commerce, and destroying it by flood. One of the bridges in particular stands out — the Ponte Vecchio Old Bridge , whose most striking feature is the multitude of shops built upon its edges, held up by stilts.

The bridge also carries Vasari's elevated corridor linking the Uffizi to the Medici residence Palazzo Pitti. Although the original bridge was constructed by the Etruscans , the current bridge was rebuilt in the 14th century. It is the only bridge in the city to have survived World War II intact. The church of San Lorenzo contains the Medici Chapel , the mausoleum of the Medici family —the most powerful family in Florence from the 15th to the 18th century. Nearby is the Uffizi Gallery, one of the finest art museums in the world — founded on a large bequest from the last member of the Medici family. The Uffizi is located at the corner of Piazza della Signoria , a site important for being the centre of Florence's civil life and government for centuries. The Palazzo della Signoria facing it is still home of the municipal government.

Many significant episodes in the history of art and political changes were staged here, such as:. The Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria is the location of a number of statues by other sculptors such as Donatello , Giambologna , Ammannati and Cellini , although some have been replaced with copies to preserve the originals. Florence contains several palaces and buildings from various eras. The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence and also an art museum. This large Romanesque crenellated fortress-palace overlooks the Piazza della Signoria with its copy of Michelangelo's David statue as well as the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi.

Originally called the Palazzo della Signoria , after the Signoria of Florence , the ruling body of the Republic of Florence , it was also given several other names: Palazzo del Popolo , Palazzo dei Priori , and Palazzo Ducale , in accordance with the varying use of the palace during its long history. The building acquired its current name when the Medici duke's residence was moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti. Palazzo Medici Riccardi , designed by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo for Cosimo il Vecchio , of the Medici family, is another major edifice, and was built between and It was well known for its stone masonry that includes rustication and ashlar.

Today it is the head office of the Metropolitan City of Florence and hosts museums and the Riccardiana Library. The Palazzo Strozzi , an example of civil architecture with its rusticated stone, was inspired by the Palazzo Medici , but with more harmonious proportions. Today the palace is used for international expositions like the annual antique show founded as the Biennale dell'Antiquariato in , fashion shows and other cultural and artistic events. Here also is the seat of the Istituto Nazionale del Rinascimento and the noted Gabinetto Vieusseux , with the library and reading room.

There are several other notable places, including the Palazzo Rucellai , designed by Leon Battista Alberti between and and executed, at least in part, by Bernardo Rossellino ; the Palazzo Davanzati , which houses the museum of the Old Florentine House; the Palazzo delle Assicurazioni Generali , designed in the Neo-Renaissance style in ; the Palazzo Spini Feroni , in Piazza Santa Trinita , a historic 13th-century private palace, owned since the s by shoe-designer Salvatore Ferragamo ; as well as various others, including the Palazzo Borghese, the Palazzo di Bianca Cappello, the Palazzo Antinori , and the Royal building of Santa Maria Novella.

Florence contains numerous museums and art galleries where some of the world's most important works of art are held. The city is one of the best preserved Renaissance centres of art and architecture in the world and has a high concentration of art, architecture and culture. The gallery is articulated in many halls, catalogued by schools and chronological order. Engendered by the Medici family's artistic collections through the centuries, it houses works of art by various painters and artists. The Galleria dell'Accademia houses a Michelangelo collection, including the David. It has a collection of Russian icons and works by various artists and painters. Other museums and galleries include the Bargello , which concentrates on sculpture works by artists including Donatello, Giambologna and Michelangelo ; the Palazzo Pitti, containing part of the Medici family's former private collection.

In addition to the Medici collection, the palace's galleries contain many Renaissance works, including several by Raphael and Titian , large collections of costumes, ceremonial carriages, silver, porcelain and a gallery of modern art dating from the 18th century. Adjoining the palace are the Boboli Gardens , elaborately landscaped and with numerous sculptures. There are several different churches and religious buildings in Florence. The cathedral is Santa Maria del Fiore. The San Giovanni Baptistery located in front of the cathedral, is decorated by numerous artists, notably by Lorenzo Ghiberti with the Gates of Paradise.

The city additionally contains the Orthodox Russian church of Nativity, and the Great Synagogue of Florence , built in the 19th century. Florence contains various theatres and cinemas. The Odeon Cinema of the Palazzo dello Strozzino is one of the oldest cinemas in the city. Established from to [46] in a wing of the Palazzo dello Strozzino, it used to be called the Cinema Teatro Savoia Savoy Cinema-Theatre , yet was later called Odeon. The Teatro della Pergola , located in the centre of the city on the eponymous street, is an opera house built in the 17th century. Another theatre is the Teatro Comunale or Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino , originally built as the open-air amphitheatre, the Politeama Fiorentino Vittorio Emanuele , which was inaugurated on 17 May with a production of Donizetti 's Lucia di Lammermoor and which seated 6, people.

It was begun in in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by , with the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Aside from such monuments, Florence contains numerous major squares piazze and streets. The Piazza Santa Croce is another; dominated by the Basilica of Santa Croce , it is a rectangular square in the centre of the city where the Calcio Fiorentino is played every year.

Furthermore, there is the Piazza Santa Trinita , a square near the Arno that mark the end of the Via de' Tornabuoni street. The centre additionally contains several streets. Such include the Via Camillo Cavour , one of the main roads of the northern area of the historic centre; the Via Ghibellina, one of central Florence's longest streets; the Via dei Calzaiuoli, one of the most central streets of the historic centre which links Piazza del Duomo to Piazza della Signoria , winding parallel to via Roma and Piazza della Repubblica ; the Via de' Tornabuoni , a luxurious street in the city centre that goes from Antinori square to ponte Santa Trinita , across Piazza Santa Trinita , characterised by the presence of fashion boutiques; the Viali di Circonvallazione , 6-lane boulevards surrounding the northern part of the historic centre; as well as others, such as Via Roma, Via degli Speziali, Via de' Cerretani, and the Viale dei Colli.

Florence also contains various parks and gardens. In the city was home to 50, people. As of 31 October [update] , the population of the city proper is ,, while Eurostat estimates that , people live in the urban area of Florence. The Metropolitan Area of Florence, Prato and Pistoia, constituted in over an area of roughly 4, square kilometres 1, sq mi , is home to 1. Within Florence proper, Minors children aged 18 and less totalled This compares with the Italian average of The average age of Florence resident is 49 compared to the Italian average of In the five years between and , the population of Florence grew by 3. As of [update] , An estimated 6, Chinese live in the city. Tourism is, by far, the most important of all industries and most of the Florentine economy relies on the money generated by international arrivals and students studying in the city.

Manufacturing and commerce, however, still remain highly important. Florence is a major production and commercial centre in Italy, where the Florentine industrial complexes in the suburbs produce all sorts of goods, from furniture, rubber goods, chemicals, and food. Heavy industry and machinery also take their part in providing an income. In Nuovo Pignone, numerous factories are still present, and small-to medium industrial businesses are dominant. The Florence-Prato-Pistoia industrial districts and areas were known as the 'Third Italy' in the s, due to the exports of high-quality goods and automobile especially the Vespa and the prosperity and productivity of the Florentine entrepreneurs. Some of these industries even rivalled the traditional industrial districts in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto due to high profits and productivity.

In the fourth quarter of , manufacturing increased by 2. Leading sectors included mechanical engineering, fashion, pharmaceutics, food and wine. During , permanent employment contracts increased by Tourism is the most significant industry in central Florence. From April to October, tourists outnumber local population. Tickets to the Uffizi and Accademia museums are regularly sold out and large groups regularly fill the basilicas of Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella , both of which charge for entry. Tickets for The Uffizi and Accademia can be purchased online prior to visiting. Studies by Euromonitor International have concluded that cultural and history-oriented tourism is generating significantly increased spending throughout Europe.

Florence is believed to have the greatest concentration of art in proportion to its size in the world. In , Florence had 20, hotel rooms in facilities. Tourism brings revenue to Florence, but also creates certain problems. Some tourists are less than respectful of the city's cultural heritage, according to Nardella. In June , he instituted a programme of spraying church steps with water to prevent tourists from using such areas as picnic spots. While he values the benefits of tourism, he claims that there has been "an increase among those who sit down on church steps, eat their food and leave rubbish strewn on them," he explained.

Food and wine have long been an important staple of the economy. The Chianti region is just south of the city, and its Sangiovese grapes figure prominently not only in its Chianti Classico wines but also in many of the more recently developed Supertuscan blends. Within 32 km 20 mi to the west is the Carmignano area, also home to flavourful sangiovese-based reds. The celebrated Chianti Rufina district, geographically and historically separated from the main Chianti region, is also few kilometres east of Florence.

More recently, the Bolgheri region about km or 93 mi southwest of Florence has become celebrated for its " Super Tuscan " reds such as Sassicaia and Ornellaia. Florence was the birthplace of High Renaissance art, which lasted from to While Medieval art focused on basic story telling of the Bible, Renaissance art focused on naturalism and human emotion. Religion was important, but with this new age came the humanization [76] [77] of religious figures in art, such as Expulsion from the Garden of Eden , Ecce Homo Bosch, s , and Madonna Della Seggiola ; People of this age began to understand themselves as human beings, which reflected in art.

Their works, together with those of many other generations of artists, are gathered in the several museums of the town: the Uffizi Gallery, the Palatina gallery with the paintings of the "Golden Ages", [80] the Bargello with the sculptures of the Renaissance, the museum of San Marco with Fra Angelico 's works, the Academy, the chapels of the Medicis [81] Buonarroti's house with the sculptures of Michelangelo, the following museums: Bardini, Horne, Stibbert, Romano, Corsini, The Gallery of Modern Art, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo , the museum of Silverware and the museum of Precious Stones. In the archaeological museum includes documents of Etruscan civilisation.

Florentine architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi — and Leon Battista Alberti — were among the fathers of both Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture. The cathedral, topped by Brunelleschi's dome, dominates the Florentine skyline. The Florentines decided to start building it — late in the 13th century, without a design for the dome. The project proposed by Brunelleschi in the 14th century was the largest ever built at the time, and the first major dome built in Europe since the two great domes of Roman times — the Pantheon in Rome, and Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore remains the largest brick construction of its kind in the world.

The two buildings incorporate in their decoration the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In recent years, most of the important works of art from the two buildings — and from the nearby Giotto's Campanile , have been removed and replaced by copies. The originals are now housed in the Museum dell'Opera del Duomo, just to the east of the cathedral. Picture galleries in Florence include the Uffizi and the Pitti Palace. Two superb collections of sculpture are in the Bargello and the Museum of the Works of the Duomo. As in his earlier works, Pico intends to mystify because he believes that the highest and most sacred wisdom must not be divulged in plain language. The surprising thing, in the Western tradition of philosophy, is that Pico thinks of this project as philosophical.

But by the end of the eighteenth century, Kant had so thoroughly revolutionized philosophy that its history had to be reformulated in Kantian terms. In practice, the task was to update the huge Critical History of Philosophy produced by Jacob Brucker in , where the eclectic Brucker describes Pico as that worst of all monsters, a Platonizing, Judaizing syncretist. Half a century later, Wilhelm Tennemann began the revisionist History of Philosophy — in which Pico makes his first appearance as a proto-Kantian advocate of human freedom and dignity. In the first few pages of the Oration —pages read more often than any other product of Renaissance Latin humanism—God tells Adam that he, alone of all creatures, can make himself what he wants to be. Having gathered strength during the nineteenth century, and having acquired a romantic patina, this view of Pico—and, by implication, of Renaissance humanism—reached its peak with the great Neo-Kantian of his age, Ernst Cassirer.

Meanwhile, Eugenio Garin had published what is still the most important book on Pico in the Fascist Italy of , just before the racial laws were put into force. The most conspicuous pages of the Oration , celebrated by Garin and many others as the humanist charter of human freedom and dignity, are just the first few. Assured by them that we can be what we want to be, we are then told—contrary to the usual interpretation of the Oration —that what we must be is not human at all.

We must become angels—bodiless, sexless and ultimately, that most unromantic of all conditions, selfless in the strictest sense. Cherubim, the next-to-highest angels, are the first higher stage that we must reach, and to achieve that lofty state we must shed not only the body that imprisons us but also the identity and personality that distinguish us from all other individuals and from God. At the lowest level of a self-annihilating paideia , the mystic starts as a philosopher—with ethics, logic, natural philosophy and theology—before ascending through the arcana of magic and Kabbalah to drown the self in the abyss of divinity. This is not a Kantian project, and the Oration on the Dignity of Man that locates the human condition in human freedom and dignity is a text created by us post-Kantians, not by Giovanni Pico.

Its seven parts may or may not be what he had in mind, but from the layout of the Conclusions it is clear that he thought along numerological lines. Moreover, the title and organization of the Heptaplus show that 7 was a particularly meaningful number to him—like so many other seekers of secrets. The full title is Heptaplus, on the Sevenfold Account of the Six Days of Genesis , surely an invitation to ponder arithmetical mysteries. Since this work of restates a theme—ascending to felicitas or supreme happiness—that had occupied Pico since the Commento of —6, it would not be surprising to find that its sevenfold structure derives from earlier writings, including the Oration.

That famous speech can be analyzed as follows:. The lesson taught seven times in the central part of the Oration part 4 above is a curriculum whose felicitous goal is mystical union with God: first elaborated by the ancient Neoplatonists, it was taken up by the Church Fathers and became a commonplace of Christian mysticism, though Pico would also have found it in such Kabbalist texts as the commentary on the Song of Songs by Levi ben Gerson. The student starts with moral philosophy and then moves through dialectic and natural philosophy toward theology, until discursive thought gives way to ecstasy, pure contemplation and finally unification.

The stages of this paideia are. Magic and Kabbalah are preliminary to union in this process but still important. The philosophical theory behind this spirituality goes back to the Greek Commentators on Aristotle and becomes more explicit in Avicenna, Averroes and other Muslim sages. The unfinished Disputations is a long and unwelcoming book, made all the more forbidding by its ragged presentation and reliance on so many obscure and technical sources; much of it repeats and reinforces ancient and medieval objections to astrology.

He exposes the claims made by astrologers who often contradicted themselves and violated the canons of reason and experience that the sciences must rely upon. The logical, methodological and epistemological complaints compiled by Pico had been well known since before the ancient sceptics recorded their objections. The Oration and Conclusions authenticate this genealogy by reinforcing it with the even more venerable tradition of Kabbalah.

Like Kabbalah, astrology was also made plausible by classicism, the new humanist culture that measured the authority of a doctrine by its age. Since astrology could claim a record of observing planets and stars over several millennia, it had stood the test of primordial time as its experience accumulated. In the Disputations that he did not live to finish, Pico now rejected this static mytho-history. When he attacked Chaldaean stargazers as ignorant and superstitious, part of what he found credulous was their obsession with mathematics. But Pico was not Platonic enough to suit Ficino, just as he was not Aristotelian enough for doctrinaire Aristotelians.

In general, Ficino welcomed Pico as a junior ally in that same cause, as evidenced by the warm personal language of the correspondence between the two thinkers. The Pico of that Life is a Savonarolan saint who came almost too late to salvation but finally rejected the world, the flesh and the devil. This is not the Pico who traveled to Rome a few years before to take on the whole world in a failed philosophical extravaganza; nor the Pico who bungled an attempt to carry off a married woman whose husband was named Medici—no less; nor the Pico with whom Ficino bantered about his missteps and misfortunes in letters loaded with astro-mythological allusions.

It may be that the disasters of —7 chastened the young nobleman enough to explain the muffling of Kabbalah in the Heptaplus and the jarring recantation that we find in the Disputations. Pico as we now know him, even more remote from the facts of his life and thought, is an artifact of twentieth century scholarship whose philosophical roots were in the nineteenth century. In the list below, 1 is the most commonly cited of the early editions. For the Oration , Heptaplus De ente et uno and Disputationes , the standard twentieth century editions were by Garin 2, 3. But for the Oration , see now Bausi 16 , and for an English version see 5 , which also provides translations of De ente et uno and the Heptaplus. Translations and Latin texts of the Conclusions are available in 10, 14, For the Commento , see 6, 7, 8.

For the Psalm commentaries, see 13 , and for the sonnets 9. A recent bibliography of Pico editions and works about Pico lists more than studies after , but only for the preceding century, when even Italian scholars came late to Pico and not in large numbers:. For recent items and a few not so recent not mentioned in Quaquarelli and Zanardi, see the list that follows; see also the on-line bibliography compiled and maintained by Michael Dougherty.

Life 2. The Ten Sefirot. Opera omnia , reprint of the Basel edition, Hildesheim: Olms, De hominis dignitate, Heptaplus, De ente et uno e scritti vari , ed. Eugenio Garin, Florence: Vallechi, Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem , ed. Eugenio Garin, Florence: Vallechi, , Commentary on a canzone of Benivieni , trans.

Yet it ancient greek characters much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, and why it began when it Shaken Baby Syndrome Essay. Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art is, by far, the most important of all industries and most of the Florentine economy relies Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art the Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art generated by international arrivals and students studying in the city. The Golden Age of Analysis Of Francesco Petrarch: Humanism Within Renaissance Art art began around this time.