Figures on the exterior of Orsanmichele the Guildhall in Florence Italy
Florence is the main city of Tuscany in Italy. Cosimo de' Medici was the first of the Medici family to control the city. Medici were bankers to the pope which contributed to their rise. Cosimo was succeeded by his son Piero, who was shortly was succeeded by Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo the magnificent in 1469. Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. The Uffizi Palace now a Museum was built as offices for the Medici empire. Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived here, along with Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, reformists of architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, founders of the Renaissance; Ghiberti and the Della Robbia; Filippo Lippi and Fra Angelico; Botticelli and Paolo Uccello; the universal geniuses Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti. Their works are gathered in the city's many museums. In Florence, thanks to Dante, the Italian language was born; with Petrarch and Boccaccio were its literary men, with Machiavelli modern political science was born. Galileo was the father of science. In November 1966, the Arno flooded parts of the centre, damaging many art treasures. There was no warning from the authorities who knew the flood was coming, except a phone call to the jewelers on the Ponte Vecchio. Around the city there are tiny placards on the walls noting where the flood waters reached at their highest point.
Size: 5100px × 3414px
Location: Florence, Italy, Europe
Photo credit: © Brenda Kean / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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