Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Childhood
- 2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
- 3. The Cultural Climate of Florence
- 4. First Years in Florence and the Verrocchio Workshop
- 5. First Works in Florence and the Artistic Milieu
- 6. Early Pursuits in Engineering ??? Hydraulics and the Movement of Water
- 7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's Creative Method
- 8. Early Participation in the Medici Court
- 9. Leonardo's Personality and Place in Florentine Society
- 10. Important Productions and Collaborations in the Verrocchio Shop
- 11. Leonardo's Colleagues in the Workshop
- 12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the Exploration of Optics
- 13. The Benois Madonna and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
- 14. The Madonna of the Cat
- 15. Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
- 16. Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
- 17. Leonardo as Portraitist and Master of the Visual Pun
- 18. The Young Sculptor
- 19. The Madonna Litta
- 20. The Adoration of the Magi and Invention of the High Renaissance Style
- 21. The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
- 22. Leonardo and Allegorical Conceits for the Medici Court
- 23. Early Ideas for the Last Supper
- 24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
- 25. Saint Jerome
- 26. First Thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the Invention of the Mary Magdalene-Courtesan Genre
- 27. Milan
- 28. Leonardo and the Sforza Court
- Bibliography with Endnotes
- Index
3. - The Cultural Climate of Florence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Childhood
- 2. Florence and Cosimo the Elder
- 3. The Cultural Climate of Florence
- 4. First Years in Florence and the Verrocchio Workshop
- 5. First Works in Florence and the Artistic Milieu
- 6. Early Pursuits in Engineering ??? Hydraulics and the Movement of Water
- 7. The Bust of a Warrior and Leonardo's Creative Method
- 8. Early Participation in the Medici Court
- 9. Leonardo's Personality and Place in Florentine Society
- 10. Important Productions and Collaborations in the Verrocchio Shop
- 11. Leonardo's Colleagues in the Workshop
- 12. Leonardo's Madonna of the Carnation and the Exploration of Optics
- 13. The Benois Madonna and Continued Meditations on the Theme of Sight
- 14. The Madonna of the Cat
- 15. Leonardo, the Medici, and Public Executions
- 16. Leonardo and Ginevra de??? Benci
- 17. Leonardo as Portraitist and Master of the Visual Pun
- 18. The Young Sculptor
- 19. The Madonna Litta
- 20. The Adoration of the Magi and Invention of the High Renaissance Style
- 21. The Adoration and Leonardo's Military Interests
- 22. Leonardo and Allegorical Conceits for the Medici Court
- 23. Early Ideas for the Last Supper
- 24. Leonardo and the Saint Sebastian
- 25. Saint Jerome
- 26. First Thoughts for the Virgin of the Rocks and the Invention of the Mary Magdalene-Courtesan Genre
- 27. Milan
- 28. Leonardo and the Sforza Court
- Bibliography with Endnotes
- Index
Summary
Cosimo's patronage of the visual arts was no less impressive than his support of humanist scholars and literature. Under his bullish, benevolent reign, Filippo Brunelleschi created the vast dome of the cathedral, an architectural miracle, and the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti realized the sumptuous gilt bronze Gates of Paradise for the Baptistery portal nearby. While Brunelleschi built for Cosimo what would become the principal Medici church, San Lorenzo, the dependable architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo, at Cosimo's request, renovated the church and convent of San Marco (where Cosimo maintained a penitential cell), constructed a grand new palace for the Medici on the via Larga, and renovated villas for them in the sylvan backwaters of Cafaggiolo, Careggi, and Trebbio. From his favorite artist, the sculptor Donatello, Cosimo commissioned several important works, including the controversial, sensuous bronze David, a rakish interpretation of the biblical hero, with more sashay than swagger.
Cosimo kept busy the rambunctious Fra Filippo Lippi, seducer of ladies and nuns alike, and all of the other major painters as well; Lippi supplied a number of pictures for the new Palazzo Medici, and Fra Angelico and Paolo Uccello painted altarpieces and frescoes for the churches of San Marco and Santa Maria Novella. Some of Lippi's pictures, such as his Annunciation (c. 1439) in San Lorenzo, followed what were the latest, progressive, “scientific” trends in art. He defined the space of the painting through a strict, if vertiginous, one-point perspective system – a striking application of mathematics and geometry – and he rendered the foreground glass vase with impressive, optical precision.
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- The Young LeonardoArt and Life in Fifteenth-Century Florence, pp. 17 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011