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Florence and Rome. Patrons of the Renaissance

Merchants, monasteries, the Medici and the papal court. The changing work of artists from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century.

Open the tour

Florentine painting had patrons long before the Medici. Local families paid for chapels, monasteries decorated their walls, and workshops passed their methods to apprentices. The Renaissance developed from this foundation. Perspective and the study of bodies and antiquities gave painters new ways to fulfil familiar commissions.

We follow artists between the church, the wealthy home and the court. The Medici supported San Marco and collected paintings of ancient myths. In Rome, Michelangelo and Raphael worked for popes. Finally we return to Florence, where portraits served its hereditary rulers.

Commissions also had a social dimension. Someone who paid for a chapel could leave a portrait there; the owner of a mythological picture could display classical learning. We will distinguish what documents establish, what the works show and what we infer. Devotion, prestige and a personal interest in art could coexist.

Before the Medici

Altarpieces and frescoes filled churches long before the fifteenth century. These works show what Renaissance painters inherited.

Virgin and Child with Saints

Berlinghiero · c. 1230s

Berlinghiero’s gold ground and arrangement of saints define an altar image, our starting point for church patronage.

Madonna and Child

Duccio di Buoninsegna · ca. 1290–1300

Duccio’s small panel called for close viewing. The scale of a devotional image depended on its setting.

Lamentation

Giotto di Bondone · 1303–1305

In Padua a wealthy patron paid for an entire chapel. Giotto arranged a narrative across its walls, linking faces with gestures.

The Adoration of the Magi

Giotto di Bondone · possibly ca. 1320

Giotto’s later Adoration lets us compare his figures on a small wooden panel with his wall painting.

Saint Andrew

Simone Martini · ca. 1326

Simone Martini’s portable altar could be folded and transported, explaining the small scale of its figures.

Family chapels and monasteries

Fifteenth-century painters were asked to construct convincing spaces on walls. Patrons would pray there and preserve their family’s memory.

The Tribute Money

Masaccio · 1423–1427 (initial Brancacci Chapel cycle)

Masaccio connects three episodes within one landscape in the Brancacci Chapel. Perspective helps viewers follow the narrative.

Coronation of the Virgin

Fra Angelico · 1420s

Fra Angelico retains gold and a close gathering of saints. New methods did not immediately replace established altar designs.

Annunciation at San Marco

Fra Angelico · About 1440–1450

At San Marco, Cosimo de’ Medici’s funding supported monastic life. The fresco’s painter was himself a Dominican friar.

Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Botticelli · 1470–1475

The patron and the Medici appear in an altarpiece.

The Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Botticelli · c. 1478/1482

In another Adoration, Botticelli rearranges the crowd. Comparing them shows a workshop finding new solutions to a familiar subject.

Painting in a wealthy home

Domestic portraits presented marriage and family standing. Ancient figures allowed patrons to display their learning and interest in poetry.

Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement

Fra Filippo Lippi · ca. 1440

Lippi’s portrait places a couple in a domestic space. Inscriptions and clothing contribute to the family’s self-presentation.

Ginevra de' Benci [obverse]

Leonardo da Vinci · c. 1474/1478

Ginevra’s portrait joins the likeness of a particular woman to the learned culture around her.

Spring (Primavera)

Sandro Botticelli · About 1480

Classical myth, a flowering garden and the pursuit of Chloris.

The Birth of Venus

Sandro Botticelli · c. 1485

A pagan goddess within the culture of Christian Florence.

Virgin and Child with an Angel

Sandro Botticelli · 1475–85

Alongside mythology, Botticelli’s workshop produced Madonnas, reflecting a continuing demand for domestic devotional painting.

The Last Communion of Saint Jerome

Sandro Botticelli · early 1490s

A late religious work by Botticelli returns us to private devotion and a small circle of viewers.

Mona Lisa (Portrait of Lisa Gherardini)

Leonardo da Vinci · 1503–1519

Leonardo turns a private portrait into a prolonged study of light, a face and a landscape.

Major commissions beyond Florence

Artists moved to follow work. Milan offered ducal support, Rome papal commissions. The Sistine Chapel is named after Sixtus IV; Michelangelo painted its ceiling for Julius II.

The Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci · 1495–1498

In Milan, Leonardo painted Christ’s meal for a monastic refectory. The setting determined both subject and scale.

The Creation of Adam

Michelangelo · 1508–1512 (Sistine Chapel ceiling cycle)

Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling. The figures were designed to be seen from far below.

The School of Athens

Raphael · 1508–1511 (Stanza della Segnatura cycle)

In nearby papal apartments Raphael assembled ancient philosophers. One court commissioned both biblical and learned subjects.

The Sistine Madonna

Raphael · 1512–1513

Raphael’s altarpiece shows the achievements of his Roman years applied to a church commission for Piacenza.

The Medici become dukes

The family’s position changed in the sixteenth century. Court portraits reveal the transition from the influence of wealthy citizens to hereditary rule.

Alessandro de' Medici

Pontormo, · 1534–35

Pontormo depicts Alessandro de’ Medici. The portrait now represents Florence’s ruler, bringing family history into government.

Portrait of a Young Man

Bronzino · 1530s

Bronzino closes the tour with a young man from the world of the court. His clothes, pose and book demand attention as close as the faces on early altarpieces.

Patrons and new tasks

The Renaissance had many patrons. A family chapel, a room for prayer, a domestic chest and papal apartments required different images. Medici wealth explains part of this history; other families, monasteries and rulers worked alongside them.

The journey from a gold-ground altar to a ducal portrait took several centuries. Religious painting remained central to many workshops throughout. New ways of depicting space and the human body developed within that work and spread to other genres.

Artists in the tour

Sources