The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence

Successful merchants and Florence’s most prominent patrons of the arts and sciences, the Medici family ruled the city from the fifteenth century until the mid-eighteenth century. This beautiful and authoritative Renaissance book focuses on the glorious art produced during the height of the reign of the Medici dynasty.

Eminent authorities tell us that under the grand dukes Cosimo I, his sons Francesco I and Ferdinando I, and his grandson Cosimo II, Florence experienced a great flowering of the arts. The Medici dukes gave commissions to artists such as Pontormo, Bronzino, Vasari, Giambologna, and, in particular, Michelangelo, whose work overshadowed much of the city’s cultural and artistic life at this time.

The Medici used the buildings and works of art that resulted from their patronage as a means to promote and reflect their political and cultural aspirations within their native city and throughout Europe.

This art exhibition catalogue was published to accompany the Magnificenza! Exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Detroit Institute of Arts in 2002-2003.

This art book about Italian art history is one of many art books available from the National Gallery, which include art history books, art exhibition catalogues and gift books.