The most talented literary protégé of Lorenzo was the famous scholar, Angelo Politiano. Politiano was born on the 24th of July, 1454, at Monte Pulciano (Mons Politianus), a castle, of which he adopted the name, instead of that of Ambrogini, borne by his father. He applied himself with ardour to those scholastic studies which engaged the general mind in the fifteenth century. Some Latin and Greek epigrams, which he wrote between the age of thirteen and seventeen, surprised his teachers and the companions of his studies. But the work which introduced him to Lorenzo de’ Medici, and which had the greatest influence on his age, was a poem on a tournament, in which Julian de’ Medici was the victor, in 1468. From that time, Lorenzo received Politiano into his palace; made him the constant companion of his labours and his studies; provided for all his necessities, and soon afterwards confided to him the education of his children. Politiano, after this invitation, attached himself to the more serious studies of the Platonic philosophy, of antiquity, and of law; but his poem in honour of the tournament of Julian de’ Medici remains a monument of the distinguished taste of the fifteenth century. This celebrated fragment commences like a large work, but unfortunately was never finished.[c]
We need not now mention the other minor poets of the age. Suffice it that, all in all, the age of the Medici cannot be called a time of really great literary development. It produced no Dante, Petrarch, or Boccaccio. But it witnessed a tremendous advance in general culture, due in part to the study of the classics, and it prepared the way for Ariosto and Tasso.
FIFTEENTH CENTURY ART
The real glory of the time was its achievement in the field of the graphic arts. In this field also the epoch was transitional; but the transition carries us, in the latter part of the epoch, to heights never previously attained. At the beginning of the fifteenth century such work as that of Giotto represents the highest standard of accomplishment; before the death of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Leonardo da Vinci had produced his greatest masterpiece. In other words, the fundamental problems of the pictorial art which the fourteenth century had failed to solve had yielded to the researches of this later generation. The laws of perspective had been perfected by Brunelleschi and Masaccio; anatomy had been studied as never previously by the Florentines Ghiberti and Donatello; and a large number of earnest investigators, turning to nature on the one hand for their model, while developing a pictorial sense by observation combined with reflection, had prepared the way for the final realisation of the value of light and shadow and of the proper distribution of the parts of a composition which reached approximate perfection at the hands of Leonardo.
A brief but comprehensive estimate of the art development of the first half of the fifteenth century has been left us by Vasari, himself an artist contemporary with Michelangelo. Viewing the work of his predecessors from the standpoint of the final culmination of the sixteenth century,—the time of Michelangelo,—Vasari combines the judgment of a tolerably keen critic with the sympathies of a fellow-student. His estimate thus has double value.[a]
Vasari’s Estimate of Fifteenth Century Art
Jesus Disputing with the Doctors
(By Leonardo da Vinci)
In this period, he says, the arts will be seen to have infinitely improved at all points; the compositions comprise more figures; the accessories and ornaments are richer, and more abundant; the drawing is more correct, and approaches more closely to the truth of nature; and, even where no great facility or practice is displayed, the works yet evince much thought and care; the manner is more free and graceful; the colouring more brilliant and pleasing, insomuch that little is now required to the attainment of perfection in the faithful imitation of nature. By the study and diligence of the great Filippo Brunelleschi, architecture first recovered the measures and proportions of the antique, in the round columns as well as in the square pilasters, and the rusticated and plain angles. Care was taken that all should proceed according to rule; that a fixed arrangement should be adhered to, and that the various portions of the work should receive each its due measure and place. Drawing acquired force and correctness, a better grace was imparted to the buildings erected, and the excellence of the art was made manifest: the beauty and variety of design required for capitals and cornices were restored; and, while we perceive the ground plans of churches and other edifices to have been admirably laid at this period, we also remark that the fabrics themselves are finely proportioned, magnificently arranged, and richly adorned, as may be seen in that astonishing erection, the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore, in Florence, and in the beauty and grace of its lantern; in the graceful, rich, and variously ornamented church of Santo Spirito; and in the no less beautiful edifice of San Lorenzo; or again, in the fanciful invention of the octangular church of the Angioli; in the light and graceful church and convent belonging to the abbey of Florence; and in the magnificent and lordly commencement of the Pitti Palace, to say nothing of the vast and commodious edifice constructed by Francesco di Giorgio, in the church and palace of the Duomo, at Urbino; of the strong and rich castle of Naples; or of the impregnable fortress of Milan, and many other remarkable erections of that time.