Who Created Florence? Making a Renaissance City

Nicholas Terpstra, University of Toronto

Florence stands out for many as embodying the peak of Italian Renaissance creativity.  But what made it the artistic centre that we see today? Many Renaissance cities had artists, architects, authors, and musicians, but few have the reputation that Florence continues to enjoy as the place to go in order to immerse yourself in the culture of the Renaissance.  To understand why, we have to go beyond the artists themselves and look at those who later collected, conserved, and (re)created the art and architecture we see today.  This lecture will move form a fifteenth century creator, to a sixteenth century collector, an eighteenth century conservor, and a group of nineteenth century expatriates in order to answer the question of “who created Florence” as the modern Renaissance capital that we see today.

Generously funded by Joe Di Geso. Presented jointly by CIMS Ottawa and CIMS Toronto.