A visitor studies Titians portrait, Benedetto Varchi, left, and Bronzinos Allegorical portrait of Dante, at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512-1570, exhibit in New York, June 21, 2021. The sweep of Italian history and art history in dazzling portraits from the dynastys final hurrah, on view in a sumptuous exhibition at the Met. Diana Markosian/The New York Times.
by Roberta Smith
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- Its hard to imagine Florence, cradle of the High Renaissance of early modern Europe, without its avaricious, venal, culture-conscious first family, the Medicis. Crowned and uncrowned, during periods of supposedly republican government and not, they largely ruled the city-state, or connived to, from the mid-14th to the mid-18th centuries, using art to cement their power. They excelled at banking and prospered especially when their Rome branch quietly became banker to the popes. They also populated the Catholic Churchs hierarchy with relatives, popes included, most importantly Leo X born Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici who became Bishop of Rome in 1513, followed shortly by his cousin, Clement VII (born Giulio de Medici). Both worked assiduously on the familys behalf. The Medicis persevered through exile, popular uprisings, war with neighboring city states, chronic street fighting, a spasm of violent religious fundamentalism, bouts of the plague a ... More