This oligarchy based its power on control
of the city’s guilds, which were associa-
tions of civic leaders, merchants, industrial
workers, artists, and artisans. Members of
the guilds had the vote, making the rulers
somewhat answerable to the public will;
the oligarchy in turn ruled the city with a
view to protecting trade, and increasing
the city’s prosperity and influence. Flo-
rence had a keen spirit of competition
among its leaders and industries that ex-
tended to the commissions of public art-
work. In 1401, a contest decided the best
design for the doors of the Baptistery
among Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelle-
schi, and Donatello. Spurred on by the de-
sire to provide the most striking and in-
novative design, these artists made
important innovations in the presentation
of traditional biblical scenes.
The patronage of the leading Floren-
tine family, the Medici, was a spur to Re-
naissance art and scholarship. The Medici
ruled the city from their fortified palace in
the center of Florence, controlling affairs
and dispensing favors through ownership
of one of the largest banks in Europe. They
sponsored artists and writers, commission-
ing works of art for their private homes
and for display in the city’s churches, to
serve as an example of their power and
benevolence. Despite the wealth and the
sure hand of the Medici at governance, the
city remained turbulent, always riven by
social and political factions and contend-
ing with the other powerful city-states of
Italy, such as Milan and Venice, for terri-
tory in northern Italy. The Medici were
expelled during a revolt in 1494, after
which a Dominican monk, Girolamo
Savonarola, ruled the city in a fanatical re-
action to what he saw as the city’s vain
luxuries. Books and art work were publicly
burned, and the city lived in fear of Savon-A print that shows the city of Florence, its major landmarks, and the surrounding country-
side in the year 1580. HULTON/ARCHIVE.REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.
Florence