Assess the Significance of the Medici Family for Renaissance Florence

Assess the significance of the Medici family for Renaissance Florence

The Medici family is significant for Renaissance Florence because the family applied humanism during their time of ruling. Humanism is a practice that focuses on human value and concern. With the rise of humanism, societies no longer see educations, arts, politics and many more are limited only for the rich. Before the Medici family took over the government, Renaissance was fate-driven existence; the elite class had the money and freedom whereas the lower class stays poor and ruled by the rich. Because of the unfair ruling, feuds among classes escalated until 1429 when the Medici family took over the government. Cosimo Medici is the first Medici to gained significant political power in Florence. He contributed a lot of his wealth to the city and supported artists and sculptors. In addition to that, he also built churches and started the Medici Library. Lorenzo Medici is also another significant ruler in the family. Like his grandfather, Lorenzo also showed his supports to local artists by feeding them, educating them and buying their artworks. The artist Michaelangelo for instance, lived in Lorenzo's home for support. He is now one of the world's renowned artists of all time. The Medici family indeed played a major role during Renaissance Florence. They all had the same view of the embellishment of the city and the prosperity of the population. They family's interest in art, education and science making Florence a city of learning and forefront of development.

"HISTORY OF THE MEDICI." HistoryWorld - History and Timelines. Web. 12 Aug. 2011. <http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa24>.