SkillBuilder discussion Using historical sources 1. What can we infer about the historical context of Benozzo Gozzoli’s The Journey of the Magi to Bethlehem , painted around 1459? 2. How does the depiction of the Magi reflect Florence’s political or cultural influences in the fifteenth century? 3. What Renaissance techniques did Gozzoli use in this fresco, and what do they reveal about that era?
SOURCE5 The Journey of the Magi to Bethlehem , from the east wall of the Chapel of the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, by Benozzo di Lese di Sandro Gozzoli, c.1459
SOURCE6 Pope Pius II writing about Cosimo de’ Medici
. . . not so much a citizen as the master of his city. Political councils were held at his house; the magistrates he nominated were elected; he was king in all but name and state.
SOURCE7 Alessandro Strozzi wrote about the great influence Cosimo de’ Medici had over Florence.
Whoever keeps in with the Medici does well for himself.
5.4.5 Cultural patronage The wealthy merchants of Florence were among the first people in Italy to have an interest in the classical world and played an important role in the Renaissance as patrons. They paid for a range of work to be created for churches, public buildings and private collections. Cosimo de’ Medici was a great patron of Humanists, artists, sculptors and architects. He gave money to Humanist thinkers Poggio Bracciolini and Marsilio Ficino, and commissioned the translation of Diogenes Laertius’s Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers . Both Donatello’s David and Judith and Holofernes were commissioned by Cosimo for his palace. He also paid for work on several churches in Florence, including the Church of San Marco. Cosimo’s grandson Lorenzo de’ Medici was also a great patron and commissioned a range of work, including Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera .
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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