If there is one thing I have seen day in and day out of Italy, it is art. The endless art galleries like the Uffizi Gallery, which is featured in the top 10 most visited art galleries in the world, the Pitti Palace, the home of the Medici family converted into a renaissance museum, or Vatican City in Rome, where Michelangelo’s iconic Sistine Chapel rests aside. The country’s roots are grounded from art from the very beginning. Cobblestone pathways, vast churches, stained glass windows, church altars, long winding streets—everything crafted in Italy is cultivated to be beautiful. As a result, the country itself becomes a work of art.
The city of Florence, nicknamed the “cradle of the Renaissance” showcases its art in several ways. The most obvious being The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, or shorted as The Duomo. The Duomo, meaning “the house” was once the biggest dome in the world; at a height of 502 feet. The building, as if it was alive, always makes itself apparent. From the view of a café, or in the crack of a street corner, the Duomo is an point of attraction and the type of building tourists pose in front for their Instagram profile. In the 15th century, during the Renaissance where art was consistently celebrated, that is exactly what the people of Florence would have wanted. The Medici family ruled Florence during the Renaissance. To put it shortly, the Medicis can be considered as modern-day narcissists. They sought after materialism through their love of the arts and when the family hired Filippo Brunelleschi to build the Duomo, it was to achieve something greater and to reflect the Medici’s power. Again, narcissism to put it lightly. I think the Medici family would be pleased to know thousands of people visit the Duomo every day to capture the dominance one building has over the city, even if it is only to gain likes and comments on social media.
The Duomo holds the power over the city, but Florence also contains paintings like Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” or Michelangelo’s sculpture of “David”. Artists in the Italian Renaissance had one motive, commissions. They could not afford to be average, or else they would have no career as an artist. Similar to today, artists cannot make a living without anyone buying their art. There would be no art without artists. However, the art community was smaller, and everyone was trying to be the greatest; as a result, we look back at architecture like the Duomo and sculptures like “David” and ask how they did it when now it seems unattainable to when now it seems unattainable.
In the more modern art world, Florence is still incorporating art into everyday lives. French artist, Clet Abraham, who has lived in Italy for twenty years creates art out of road signs. Not anything as astounding as the Duomo, but smaller art that faintly meets the eye, but makes walking through the streets of Italy even more exciting. He creates small cartoons onto the signs making something so dull have so much life. Although his work was once doomed as graffiti, the city accepts and embraces Abraham’s work, considering it “city art.” Florence will never be able to stray away from art.
I spend all day touring galleries with ancient artwork and admiring works that people walk by every day not sparing a second glance to. As a Californian coming from the middle of the suburbs, it is hard for me to not be in awe in all of my surroundings. I’m three weeks in and I still find myself walking with my head up admiring the view, and most definitely making myself a target to look like a tourist.
While walking through an art museum last week, one of the tour guides said, “the amazing thing about the renaissance is that the art is so spectacular that everyone can mutually agree it’s so great.”
Without the art in Florence, there would certainly be no Florence. Or there would be, but there would not be as many Instagram photos of it.
