The Ugly Renaissance (60 page)

“this life seems the hardened ground”:
Petrarch,
Sen
. 11.11, in Petrarch,
Letters of Old Age
, 2:414–15.

the city magistrates fined three men:
Brucker,
Renaissance Florence
, 29–30.

Indeed, in advising Francesco “il Vecchio” da Carrara:
Petrarch,
Sen
. 14.1, in Kohl and Witt,
Earthly Republic
, 52.

families renting a few cramped rooms:
The Florentine
catasto
indicates that the average annual rent in the quarter of San Frediano, in Oltr’Arno, was somewhere between 1 and 2 florins per year. Brucker,
Renaissance Florence
, 25.

3. W
HAT
D
AVID
S
AW

“He was not only hated by his enemies”:
Guicciardini,
Storie fiorentine
, 94, trans. in A. Brown, “Early Years of Piero di Lorenzo,” 209.

Sensing the danger, Michelangelo fled Florence:
On Michelangelo’s flight, see Hirst,
Achievement of Fame
, 21–22.

“Buonarroto tells me that you live”:
Michelangelo,
Carteggio
, 1:9.

There, his fortunes might improve:
Ibid., 1:8.

When the committee granted:
Hirst,
Achievement of Fame
, 44.

The best weavers in Florence:
Goldthwaite,
Economy of Renaissance Florence
, 576.

to discuss … transferring the completed work:
On the
deliberazione
of the
operai
in January 1504, see Hirst,
Achievement of Fame
, 45–46.

“lived more like a prince”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:322.

Luca della Robbia became rich:
Ibid., 2:32.

Correggio was forced to become:
Ibid., 1:282.

Andrea del Sarto had to content himself:
Ibid., 2:167.

Piero Lorentino d’Angelo:
Ibid., 1:197.

Within decades, super-companies had been formed:
For an excellent overview, see Goldthwaite,
Economy of Renaissance Florence
, 204–62.

Although the Salviati family’s interests:
Ibid., 74–75.

In the period 1346–50, the company founded:
Ibid., 308–9.

Giovanni Rucellai estimated that the city:
Rucellai,
Zibaldone
, 1:62, in Baldassarri and Saiber,
Images of Quattrocento Florence
, 75.

about $270.5 million:
Finding a modern equivalent for the price of the florin is a difficult business. Not only did Florence use a variety of different coins (in silver and gold), the relative value of which fluctuated over time, but the purchasing power of the florin itself also underwent considerable variation over the centuries. Goldthwaite,
Economy of Renaissance Florence
, 609–14. That said, some (very rough) approximations are possible. A gold florin contained an average of 3.536 grams of gold. At the current price of $51 per gram, this made the coin itself worth the equivalent of around $180. The purchasing power of the florin was, however, much higher, and while a variety of different points of comparison could be used, the average daily wage of an unskilled construction worker (see table at Goldthwaite,
Economy of Renaissance Florence
, 613, and Goldthwaite,
The Building of Renaissance Florence
, 436–37) is a convenient—if not completely satisfactory—benchmark. Given a going rate of 10 soldi per day—that is, about 0.12 florin per day in 1450—and comparing this against a minimum wage of about $58 per day today, it is reasonable to postulate that the purchasing power of the florin in the mid-fifteenth-century labor market was the equivalent of around $493.

in 1514, Michelangelo provided 1,000 florins:
Hirst,
Achievement of Fame
, 132–33.

Most people listed in the commune’s tax records:
Franceschi, “Economy,” 141.

accounted for the employment of 21 percent:
Herlihy and Klapisch-Zuber,
Les Toscans et leurs familles
, 295.

Individual artisans, such as weavers:
On the working conditions of the lower socioeconomic strata of Florentine society, see Cohn,
Laboring Classes in Renaissance Florence
.

Niccolò Strozzi and Giovanni di Credi:
Brucker,
Renaissance Florence
, 61–62.

women, who accounted for a growing percentage:
See Brown and Goodman, “Women and Industry in Florence.”

“the condition of the artisans”:
Brucker,
Renaissance Florence
, 26.

wages consistently failed to keep pace:
Goldthwaite,
Economy of Renaissance Florence
, 362–63.

the laborers known as “Stumpy” and “Knobby”:
Wallace,
Michelangelo
, 140–41.

“Together with many others who were seduced”:
Brucker,
Society of Renaissance Florence
, 235.

“outrages … [against] those citizens”:
Ibid.

“combers, carders, trimmers”:
Ibid., 236.

“a wool-comber … who sold provisions”:
Ibid., 237–38.

an even more dramatic reorganization:
Ibid., 239.

Michelangelo was every bit in thrall:
Artists like Michelangelo occupied a somewhat ambiguous place in this schema. Although some of those who worked with him on his sculpting projects between 1501 and 1505 either had a natural home in the guild structure or naturally sat outside it entirely, Michelangelo himself was in a curious position. As yet, there was no artists’ guild in Florence. The nearest thing that existed, the
Compagnia di San Luca—of which
Piero di Cosimo was a member—was principally a lay fraternity and was separate from the guilds. It was not until the foundation of the
Accademia del Disegno much later in the sixteenth century that artists were brought together under the same organizational roof. Perhaps because of the confusion surrounding his status, Michelangelo was not a member of any guild. Jack, “Accademia del Disegno in Late Renaissance Florence.” For the foundation of the
Accademia
, see Barzman,
Florentine Academy and the Early Modern State
, 23–59.

Soderini was the head of the Florentine state:
On Soderini’s life and career, see Cooper, “Pier Soderini.” Perhaps the clearest overview of Florentine politics in this general period remains Butters,
Governors and Government in Early Sixteenth-Century Florence
.

Soderini saw that commissions such as the
David
:
Although Vasari notes that Soderini had a key role in reviving the project, Hirst has rightly cast doubt on the veracity of this suggestion. Vasari,
Lives
, 1:337; Hirst,
Achievement of Fame
, 43.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s
Allegory of Good and Bad Government
:
The political import of Lorenzetti’s frescoes has attracted considerable scholarly interest, and has been the subject of intense debate. Two of the most important interpretations are Rubinstein, “Political Ideas in Sienese Art”; Skinner, “Ambrogio Lorenzetti.”

“unlimited power and authority”:
Dati,
Istoria di Firenze dall’anno MCCCLXXX all’anno MCCCCV
, ix, in Baldassarri and Saiber,
Images of Quattrocento Florence
, 48.

a rising young man by the name of Niccolò Machiavelli:
Machiavelli had been appointed second chancellor on June 19, 1489. On Machiavelli’s role in Florentine government in this period, see Bertelli, “Machiavelli and Soderini”; Rubinstein, “Beginning of Niccolò Machiavelli’s Career in the Florentine Chancery.”

Consisting of a staggering three thousand members:
Brucker,
Renaissance Florence
, 268.

a high turnover of personnel:
On this point, see Najemy,
Corporatism and Consensus
, 301–18, esp. 305–6; see also D. Kent, “Florentine
Reggimento
in the Fifteenth Century,” 612.

“Equal liberty exists for all”:
Baron,
Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance
, 419.

In 1361, eight people were convicted:
Najemy,
Corporatism and Consensus
, 180–81; Brucker,
Florentine Politics and Society
, 213.

“Citizens of simple mind”:
Najemy,
Corporatism and Consensus
, 203.

Dante’s exile at the hands of his factional rivals:
Dante took great pleasure in condemning his arch-nemesis, Filippo Argenti, to the filthy waters of the river Styx in the
Inferno
. Dante,
Inf
. 8.32–63.

the Medici family came to overshadow Florentine politics:
The classic survey of the Medici
reggimento
remains Rubinstein,
Government of Florence Under the Medici
; note also Hale,
Florence and the Medici
.

“not so much a citizen”:
Pius II,
Secret Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope
, II, 101.

“Political councils,” Piccolomini noted:
Ibid.

the bloody but abortive Pazzi Conspiracy:
The most recent, and perhaps most readable, account of the Pazzi Conspiracy is Martines,
April Blood
.

“a sort of servitude”:
Baldassarri and Saiber,
Images of Quattrocento Florence
, 70.

Alamanno Rinuccini launched a vitriolic attack:
The most relevant extracts are translated in ibid., 103–14.

Outlining his views in the
Trattato
:
Savonarola,
Trattato circa il reggimento e governo della città di Firenze
; for a general introduction to Savonarola’s political views, see Martines,
Scourge and Fire
, 106–10; Garfagnini,
Savonarola e la politica
; Fletcher and Shaw,
World of Savonarola
.

introduction of “new” families:
Najemy,
Corporatism and Consensus
, 323.

dissent was treated with uncompromising severity:
Although no political “traitors” were executed in the period 1498–1512, it is striking that there is a marked rise in the frequency with which “treason” was punished with death (as opposed to fines/exile) in the wake of the Pazzi Conspiracy (three executions in 1481), at the height of Savonarola’s ascendancy (six executions in 1497), and after the restoration of the Medici after Soderini’s fall. For an excellent study of this topic, see Baker, “For Reasons of State.”

the competition over the adornment of Orsanmichele:
See Brucker,
Society of Renaissance Florence
, 93–94, doc. 45.

Saint Zenobius was the source of enormous urban pride:
Verino,
De illustratione urbis Florentiae
, II, in Baldassarri and Saiber,
Images of Quattrocento Florence
, 241–42.

On reaching maturity:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:214, 216.

Although monks and friars are sometimes presented:
For example, Boccaccio,
Decameron
, 3.3.

a Tuscan abbot conceives a passionate love:
Ibid., 3.8.

a Benedictine monk is caught having an affair:
Ibid., 1.4.

Poggio Bracciolini and Leonardo Bruni:
Brucker,
Renaissance Florence
, 180–81.

“a cloth factory in the Via Maggio”:
Ibid., 176.

The Umiliati friars, for example, owned and ran:
Goldthwaite,
Economy of Renaissance Florence
, 370.

Francesco di Marco Datini’s wife once wrote:
Ibid., 368.

no fewer than 263 dioceses:
Hay,
Church in Italy in the Fifteenth Century
, 10.

“all the miseries of the world”:
Debby, “Political Views in the Preaching of Giovanni Dominici in Renaissance Florence,” 36–37.

“there is no justice but deception”:
Ibid., 40.

Savonarola struck out at the rich:
Martines,
Scourge and Fire
, 103.

4. T
HE
W
ORKSHOP OF THE
W
ORLD

“a partition of planks and trestles”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:338, amended.

“accompanied by great sweat”:
Kemp,
Leonardo on Painting
, 39.

“always having to contend”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:173.

“he would rather die of hunger”:
Ibid., 1:186–87.

“a comprehensive array of human needs”:
Cohen and Cohen,
Daily Life in Renaissance Italy
, 54.

the average size of the domestic sphere:
Herlihy and Klapisch-Zuber,
Tuscans and Their Families
.

households comprising an average of five people:
Kirshner, “Family and Marriage,” 90.

the letter he sent to Michelangelo in late 1500:
Michelangelo,
Carteggio
, 1:9.

“I must love myself first”:
Ibid., 1:7–8, trans. in Wallace,
Michelangelo
, 25.

“for the sake of his family”:
Vasari,
Lives
, 1:278.

Only on rare occasions:
Michelangelo,
Carteggio
, 1:140–41.

Lodovico himself had served:
Hatfield,
Wealth of Michelangelo
, 207.

Although he felt that it was beneath his status:
Brucker, “Florentine Voices from the
Catasto
,” 11–13, 31.

Happy as he was to accept:
From the summer of 1497 onward, Lodovico frequently accepted financial assistance from his successful second son: Hirst,
Achievement of Fame
, 32, 95, 101, 108–9, 128–33, 180–83. Yet it is evident not merely that Lodovico had little comprehension of Michelangelo’s work but also that the latter felt aggrieved by the former’s offhandedness. In late 1512, for example, Michelangelo complained bitterly that despite laboring on his family’s behalf for fifteen solid years, he had received not a single word of gratitude, and it is clear from the context of the letter that Lodovico was the primary target of his ire: ibid., 109. By 1521–22, relations between the two men had deteriorated so much that they seem to have come to blows over money: ibid., 180–81.