Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Chapter 1 Historical Background
A Time of Turmoil 9
The Flowering of Florence 14
The (Mostly) Magnificent Medici 17
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (1360-1429) 18
Cosimo de' Medici Pater Patriae (1389-1464) 18
Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, "The Gouty" (1416-1469) 21
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici, "Lorenzo il Magnifico" (1449-1492) 22
Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, "The Fatuous" (1472-1503) 26
From Confusion to Duke Cosimo I 27
Chapter 2 The Cathedral of Florence: The Cupolone and the Condottieri 29
Brunelleschi's Big Dome 29
Inside the Cathedral - The Frescoed Monuments to John Hawkwood and Niccolò da Tolentino 40
John Hawkwood 41
Niccolò da Tolentino 45
Chapter 3 The Cathedral Baptistery
History of the Building 49
The Three Sets of Bronze Doors 52
Doors by Andrea Pisano 52
Ghiberti's First Set of Doors 52
Ghiberti's Second Set of Doors- "The Gates of Paradise" 56
Inside the Baptistery 60
The Other Pope John XXIII 60
The Tale of a Tomb-The Burial Monument of Anti-Pope John XXIII (Baldassare Coscia) 66
Chapter 4 The Brancacci Chapel in S. Maria del Carmine: Where Renaissance Painting Was Born 70
Chapter 5 The Piazza della Signoria: Power Politics and Sexual Politics in the City Center 81
Donatello's Judith Beheading Holofernes 83
Cellini's Perseus and Medusa 87
Giambologna's The Rape of a Sabine Woman 92
Chapter 6 Orsanmichele: A Multipurpose Architectural Masterpiece 96
History of the Building 96
The "March of the Statues" 100
Verrocchio's Christ and Doubting Thomas 106
Chapter 7 The Ospedale degli Innocenti: Europe's First Foundling Hospital 112
Chapter 8 The Monastery of San Marco: Piety and Politics in a Cloistered World 119
Chapter 9 The Medici Palace and Its Chapel
The Architecture of Subtle Authority 129
The Medici and the Magi 134
Chapter 10 A Man, a Plan, a Palazzo: Giovanni Rucellai and His Family Palace 140
Chapter 11 The Sassetti Chapel in S. Trinita: Politics, Religion, and Personal Reputation 147
Chapter 12 The Tornabuoni Chapel in S. Maria Novella
Dueling Donors 157
The Tornabuoni Triumphant-Ghirlandaio's Frescoes in the Cappella Maggiore 161
Chapter 13 The Museo degli Uffizi: The Building and Some Highlights of the Collection 167
History of the Building 167
Uccello's Battle of San Romano 169
Botticelli's Del Lama Adoration of the Magi 176
Botticelli's Primavera 181
Botticelli's Birth of Venus 190
Hugo van der Goes's Portinari Altarpiece 197
Raphael's Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi 204
Bronzino's Eleonora di Toledo and Her Son Giovanni de' Medici 210
Titian's Venus of Urbino 217
Chapter 14 The Museo Nazionale del Bargello
History of the Building 223
Donatello's Bronze David with the Head of Goliath 224
Michelangelo's Brutus 231
Chapter 15 Il Gigante: Michelangelo's David 235
Chapter 16 Michelangelo's Medici Chapel: The Tragedy of Time in a Time of Tragedy 243
Epilogue 255
Acknowledgments 257
Selected Bibliography 259
