In Tuscany, you breathe art and culture by walking along roads, crossing squares, admiring palaces, entering churches and museums: from the charm of ancient civilizations to the intensity of the Middle Ages, from the elegance of Art Nouveau to the flair of contemporary art. However, the period that is connected more than any other to Tuscany and that still contributes to its worldwide fame is without doubts the Renaissance: a golden age for all the arts, a revolution.
Placed historically between the mid-15th century and the end of the 16th century, the Renaissance in Tuscany coincides with the peak of Florentine power and the establishment of the Medici family, whose patronage is among the factors at the base of the extraordinary flourishing of art and culture.
A cultural fervor that can already be glimpsed in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century with the development of Humanism values and the revival of classical models, particularly by Petrarch and Giotto.
The city becomes a true workshop of multidisciplinary experiences, works of ingenuity and the search for new stylistic forms: figures such as Brunelleschi emerged for architecture (Istituto degli Innocenti, Santa Maria del Fiore Dome, Church of Santo Spirito), Donatello for sculpture (David in bronze) and Masaccio for painting (frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel). Extraordinary artists establish themselves - Sandro Botticelli, Giorgio Vasari, Raffaello Sanzio, Piero della Francesca, Lorenzo Ghiberti - up until the peak reached with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti.
The Renaissance revolution does not stop in Florence.
In Siena, palaces (Palazzo Piccolomini), innovative painting and sculpture cycles (the frescoes in the Piccolomini Library by Bernardino di Betto, called Pinturicchio), and the “biggest and most magnificent” floor ever (56 marble inlays of the Duomo) were built.
And also: Palazzo Piccolomini in Pienza, the Church of San Biagio in Montepulciano, the Walls of Lucca.
With Savonarola’s seizure of power and the banishment of the Medici, artistic ferment came to an initial halt, but the Renaissance continued to influence the art of the 16th century, with many artists moving in other Italian and European cities, spreading its beauty and ideas.
Its vibrant legacy still shines in the eyes of visitors of Tuscany, among the museums rooms and the palace courtyards, in the details of statues and frescoes.
