VEROCCHIO
“THE DOUBTING THOMAS”
Or San Michele, Florence
These final co-ordinating factors were not denied. As in Greece, the personalities were in the first place politicians. The outstanding feature in the history of Italy during the fifteenth century is the number of political, military and commercial figures of real vigour and ability who rose to power. In one state after another they assumed complete control of affairs. We have only to name the Visconti and the Sforzas at Milan, the Gonzagas at Mantua, the Bentivoglio and Este families at Bologna and Ferrara, and the Montefeltro family at Urbino, to bring home their influence upon art. Most potent of all were, of course, the Medici, who centralized the artistic enthusiasms of Florence.
As had been the case in Athens, the domination of the Medici family commenced with the harnessing of the forces of Florentine democracy. The power of the Medici began when Giovanni de Medici succeeded in making the lesser guilds the rulers of Florence at the end of the fourteenth century. Giovanni had made an immense fortune by trade and had established banks all over the peninsula which he readily turned to advantage in furthering his political aims. Cosimo, his son, succeeded to Giovanni’s popularity with the lower classes, and by carefully concealing the mailed fist in the velvet glove reduced Florence to the position of Athens when Cimon and Pericles ruled as the nominal representatives of the people.
The climax was reached when Lorenzo the Magnificent succeeded Cosimo in 1469. He so altered the constitution of Florence that it became a republic only in name. A few years later he seized control of the public purse and hypnotized the political judgment of his subjects. Lorenzo was the Pericles of the Italian Renaissance. The energies and interest of the Florentine burghers were focused around his personality, and he it was that directed their efforts. As had been the case with Pericles, the great glory of Lorenzo was the unfailing tact which never interfered with the perfect freedom of action of the varied natures with which he surrounded himself—the skill with which he persuaded them that their intellectual interests were his own. His Court was frequented by a brilliant band of scholars, and any youth of ability was assured of patronage.
What was even more important, the young painters or sculptors were brought into daily contact with the men and women who were moulding public opinion and shaping history. Artists who had lived for a few years in the Court of “the Magnificent” were far more than craftsmen. They were cultivated men of the world, abreast of all the practical knowledge of their time. It was among men like these that the sculptor was found, able to give vital expression to even the manifold energies of the Italian Renaissance.
VEROCCHIO AND LEOPARDI
