The Medici and exploration

The Medici family are called the Godfathers of the Renaissance. Their promotion of exploration set the Renaissance in motion. They promoted artistic exploration, philosophical exploration, and external or physical exploration. Cosimo Medici used a lot of the money that he and his family had to promote Florence itself. He put money into different artists such as Michelangelo Buonarratti, Donatello, Filippo Brunaleschi, and Fra Angelico. Being an artist before and during the early renaissance was very rare because the best way to make money was to be commissioned before the art was made. So basically artists did not have shops set up where they sold art. The most outlandish and crazy artist/architecture that the Medici family sponsored was Filipo Brunelleschi who was a quite wild in his work but also considered a genius after he completed the unfinished dome of Duomo of Florence.

The Medici encouraged artistic exploration and took such risks because as they were making their rise to the top they needed to make a name for themselves. They believed very much in the people that they backed and whenever they took risks it always ended in good. Most of Europe was looking for a change and art was one of the ways to establish this. During the Council of Florence Cosimo Medici spread the greatness of Florence to far off lands thus becoming more popular and making Florence itself better.

citation: "Cosimo De' Medici." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 May 2010. .

"Filippo Brunelleschi." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 May 2010. .

"House of Medici." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 May 2010. .

Michelangelo_Buonarroti_Tondo_Doni. Digital image. Commons Wikimedia. Wikipedia. Web. 6 May 2010. .