The Medici Family During the Renaissance

The Renaissance was a time of rebirth of classic learning of the Greeks and Romans in Western Europe after the Middle Ages. Humanism, started by Pettrarch, was the popular belief during that era. People no longer believed that art and culture were only in the hands of the clergy. People wanted to explore and be creative, to be part of the arts and literature themselves. The Medici family were great humanists and made significant contribution to the development of the Italian and European Renaissance.

The Medici family was able to make their achievement in the Renaissance because they had tremendous power. The source of the Medici’s power and influence was their great riches. During the period before the Renaissance, known as the Middle ages, the Church’s influence was to have a humble and simple life. Throughout that course in time, money and grandness did not count but the inherited noble title that people were born with; people were born into a fate and were stuck in it for life. There were no opportunities to climb up the ladder of power. In contrast, during the Renaissance, wealthy families like the Medici’s were able to flaunt their wealth and get attention for it. It became praiseworthy to beautify art, their palaces and possessions as an expression of humanism. Art, philosophy, wealth and grandness were the most important part of life. Wealth drove the Medici’s and other prominent people in Florence at the time. Obtaining wealth was the ultimate goal. A person’s level of wealth determined their political power and social success. “. . . The magnificence that has come to be associated with Florence in the ages of Loranzo [de medici] is attributed largely to the moral transformation from which ostentatious display w...

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...ng their creations. Another member, Grand Duke Cosimo II de Medici appointed Galileo Galilei to be a professor at University of Pisa to teach philosophy and mathematics. In addition, he used his families’ momentous occasion to teach the performing arts. “Poets, scholars and artists such as Michelangelo flocked to the Medici palace.” (Barron 163). Many Renaissance artists felt comfortable with the Medici’s support and were grateful to them for their contribution. By creating that air of comfort and patronage, the Renaissance was able to flourish under the Medici family.

The Medici’s were a very influential family during Renaissance Europe. They used their money and power to built up the city of Florence and to advocate the study of art, literature and the ideas of Humanism. The Medici family made significant contributions to the European and Itallian Renaissance.