If you haven’t read up on Florence’s history [Complete Series], make sure you do that! It’s key to understanding Michelangelo’s David.
Knowledge of Ancient Rome in Medieval Florence
If you’ve noticed, Florence’s medieval history was characterized by beating back powerful, often technically superior, forces despite its comparatively diminutive size. Florence was able to achieve this through its vast financial resources by hiring mercenary armies. It was also a republic. We today would call it a corrupt and oligarchic one because it was dominated by the city’s few very powerful and rich families but it was a republic nonetheless that existed against very powerful ducal/monarchical regimes (Milan, France, the Holy Roman Empire). Florence was therefore filled to the brim with civic pride in being able to retain its independence (with the exception of a few periods) despite these challenges. By the Renaissance, this pride seeped into its visual culture, even if the objects were religious in nature.
The Renaissance is also characterized by a resurgence/infatuation/obsession in Florence with their ancient Roman heritage. It’s a misconception that all knowledge of ancient Rome was lost during the Middle Ages. They had ruins aplenty and many key writings were preserved by the Church. The writings of Aristotle, for example, are the foundation of medieval Scholasticism and the writings of such theologians as St Thomas Aquinas. Many of these texts were brought into Western Europe through Islamic Spain during the 12th and 13th centuries (it really goes without saying that there was a huge surge in intellectual and cultural achievements in Western Europe in this period, the so-called “Dark Ages”).
The Byzantine Scholars and the Arrival of Greek Texts
However, with the rapid decline of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th and 15th centuries came Greek intellectuals seeking refuge from the invading Ottomans in Western Europe and with them they brought original Greek texts. Study of Greek was not completely unheard of during the Middle Ages but these refugee scholars sparked a flurry of activity. Rather than read Roman paraphrases of these ancient texts or even translations, it was possible to go back and read the texts as they were originally written. This sparked a fury of intellectual and artistic creativity from the earliest years of the fifteenth century.
We see the emergence of the philosophical movements of Neoplatonism and humanism. Basically, what this boils down to is that there was a renewed focus on the centrality of man; rather than viewing mankind as low down in the cosmic hierarchy, man came to be viewed as a powerful force and a divine manifestation of God’s image. We see this reflected in contemporary theological shifts, particularly with regards to the focus on Christ’s humanity and time on earth rather than on the medieval focus on His otherworldly divinity. It should be noted that Neoplatonism did exist in the Middle Ages: again, St Thomas Aquinas pursued these ideas. But it received renewed attention by the intellectual circles of Renaissance Florence.
We see this reflected in the visual culture of 15th-century Florence. Although medieval artists like Nicola Pisano clearly studied the works of Antiquity—see the pulpit of Pisa Cathedral—the study of the works of Antiquity became a cultural revolution in Florence.
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