The Medici - Godfathers of the Renaissance 1/4 BG sub

Florence, 1389.

A boy is baptized into a medieval world.

He was not of noble birth.

He was the son of a local merchant.

His name was Cosimo de' Medici.

From humble beginnings, his dynasty
would seek power and influence

and not stop until they secured
the papacy itself.

Theirs was a world
where power came at a price.

Intrigue, murder, assassination...

and war.

But the city of Florence
was also a cauldron of creativity.

And for the greater glory of the family,

the Medici would protect and pay for

the greatest artists and thinkers
of their age.

Michelangelo.

Brunelleschi.

Botticelli.

Leonardo.

Galileo.

An explosion of ideas
which would shatterthe medieval world

and resonate through the centuries
in a single phrase...

Rinascimento... rebirth...

Renaissance.

Behind it stood the Medici,
godfathers of the Renaissance.

At the dawn of the 15th century,

an illicit trade had begun.

Men scoured Europe
in search of treasure.

Somewhere in the confines
of the Holy Church lay their prize.

Not the jewel-encrusted relics
or sacred icons of medieval Christendom.

Nor were they seeking
to loot the bodies of the dead,

victims of war and plague.

But hidden in the darkest vaults
of the Church

lay a prize far older
and more precious...

and sometimes far more dangerous.

What these men were really after

was knowledge.

Cosimo de' Medici and his friends

were searching for lost secrets
from the ancient world.

The shared feeling at the time
was that the achievements of the classics,

in many fields,
from philosophy to architecture,

from rhetoric to sculpture,

were unsurpassed.

At the beginning it was just
sort of fun to dig up old sculptures

or interesting to discover

lost manuscripts in faraway monasteries

and bring them down and read them.

It took them a long time to realize

that there was a whole other way
of life being embodied there.

So there's this sense
of excitement about the past

but it's also dangerous.

From across Europe, ancient learning
was carried back to Florence,

the city of Cosimo's birth.

Florence in the year 1400
was a city unlike anywhere else in Europe.

This majortrading centre
at the heart ofTuscany was a republic

in which powerful families vied
with each other for political control.

Florence was the place to be.

As we all know, every age has a place.

In the late 19th century
it was Paris,

in the late 20th century
maybe it was New York.

At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries
it was Florence.

In a side street off the main piazza

an ambitious family
was trying to make its name.

The Medici bank
was a small-scale operation

run from the back room
of a wool shop.

The growing business was managed
by Cosimo's father, Giovanni de' Medici.

Giovanni had risen from rural poverty

through a combination of aggressive
salesmanship and financial caution.

He chose his clients very carefully.

It wasn't just profit he valued.

It was loyalty.

This is a society in which,
for your guarantees of protection

you look to a man,

and he is your patron
and you are his client.

And all the other people
associated with him are your friends,

so that you can achieve almost anything

with this web or network
of friends of friends.

Baldassare Cossa was a former pirate

who had embarked on
an alternative career in the Church.

Now, he had ambitions
to enter the Vatican,

even to become pope himself.

All he needed was a campaign fund.

Giovanni knew
that the Church was in chaos.

The papacy itself was up for grabs.

With enough money,
even Cossa stood a chance of success.

Giovanni dared to back
the unlikely outsider.

The Medici prepared a lavish loan.

It was an enormous gamble
for their local business.

The family supported Cossa
all the way up the ladder of the Church,

from priest to cardinal.

And then, the bet with a pirate
finally paid off.

In 1410, Baldassare Cossa
was elected Pope John XXIII...

and the first thing he did
was remember his friends the Medici.

The new pope needed a bank
he could trust.

Giovanni and Cosimo
completely control the papal account.

They become known as "God's bankers."
That's what the Medici become known as.

And also, of course, they get that account
over all the other big Florentine families.

So they've made it.
They've finally arrived.

With their sudden leap in status,

the Medici joined an elite group
of powerful Florentines.

But, like all the leading families
of the day,

they would become transfixed
by their city's humiliating failure.

For over 100 years,

a great unfinished cathedral
had loomed over Florence.

The original planners
had been overly ambitious.

They had meant to build
the largest dome in the world

and they had failed.

Their cathedral, more than
any other building of any nature

in a medieval and Renaissance city,

represented the symbol
of the identity of the community.

And having the project not completed
was a sort of mutilation.

And without a dome,
you don't have a sacred building.

All contemporary building knowledge
had been exhausted.

Now, the city looked for fresh ideas
from a new generation.

Cosimo de' Medici had grown up
in the shadow of the cathedral.

Now, he and his father stood
on the threshold of civic power.

Perhaps they could apply
their enterprising spirit

to the greatest problem of the age...

and in the process win glory and power
for the Medici family.

The search for a solution
to the problem of the dome

led men to study the achievements
of the classical past.

Scholars like Cosimo knew
it would take an unconventional mind

to decipher the tantalising clues.

Through the streets of Florence
roamed just such a man,

a self-taught genius obsessed
by the mysteries of the ancient world.

His ideas were difficult to understand.

His name was Filippo Brunelleschi.

I think that the g-word of "genius"

is something that people
are reluctant to use these days

but I think it's very applicable
in the case of Brunelleschi.

However, maybe like many geniuses,

he wasn't someone
you would necessarily want to know.

Brunelleschi's style was unorthodox
and it gained him few friends.

He was in many arguments
with the so-called city fathers.

On one occasion
he was actually carried out

of the main government palace, forcibly,

because he'd lost his temper
and insulted people

and they were not going to be insulted
and they threw him out.

But the family who had sponsored
a pirate for a pope

were not daunted by the temper
of a maverick architect.

In the Medici, Brunelleschi had found
patrons willing to gamble on his judgment.

Brunelleschi's vision would resurrect
forgotten concepts of the past.

And, in 1419,

a new orphanage in Florence
became a showcase for his ideas

and for Medici ambition.

Brunelleschi was using
the classical orders of architecture,

something that hadn't been used
in over a thousand years.

And the people of Florence
were so amazed by this

that it's said they gathered
on the building site,

much to the inconvenience
of the workmen,

and actually watched this happening.

Because they simply hadn't seen
anyone build in that style before.

This was the first time true columns
had been used for structural support

since the days of ancient Rome.

Out of Brunelleschi's turbulent mind
had come a vision of classical simplicity.

It would spark an architectural
revolution across Europe.

Innovation and ambition
went hand in hand.

And for the Medici,
this was only the beginning.

Brunelleschi was the house architect.
They were very close.

There was a clear fit
between what Cosimo wanted

and what Brunelleschi could give him.

And it very much was about
recreating a great classical city

on the lines of Rome.

The Medici family did the sorts
of things that every ruling family did.

You tried to get power
by various public and private dealings

and then you tried to promote your image
to the rest of the world

through art and literature
and having people write about you...

being a patron of things
that can serve your ends.

With the backing of the Medici,

Brunelleschi now set his eye
on the problem of the dome,

the greatest challenge in Florence.

Brunelleschi set to work.

Cosimo would publicly support him.

The Church authorities were desperate,

offering a massive cash prize
for a solution.

Brunelleschi's model showed the largest
unsupported dome in Christendom.

But he was fearful
his ideas would be stolen.

He wrote his calculations in code

and refused to explain
the details of his plan.

The cathedral authorities
demanded some kind of demonstration

before they would award the prize.

So Brunelleschi challenged them
to stand an egg on its end.

When they failed,

Brunelleschi broke the bottom
of the egg, and it stood up.

The men complained
that his solution was so obvious.

Brunelleschi protested.

Of course it was,
and so would be the solution to the dome

if he showed them his plans.

The authorities gave in
to the stubborn architect.

The commission for the dome was his.

But what Brunelleschi would now attempt
was unprecedented

and fraught with danger.

He would have to rewrite
the rules ofWestern architecture.

And there was no certainty
of success.

For inspiration,

Brunelleschi turned to the greatest
civilisation of the ancient world.

And in Brunelleschi's wake
came Cosimo, the papal banker,

anxious to see things for himself.

In ancient Rome, men had constructed
architectural marvels.

Buildings such as the Pantheon -
the house of the gods -

the largest freestanding dome
in the world.

One of the most fascinating
buildings in ancient Rome

was definitely the Pantheon.

It was one of the most
fascinating buildings

in the collective imagination
of the Western world for a long time.

It was really something
to be absorbed and assimilated

in order to appropriate
the techniques of the building

but also the spirit
that the dome was expressing.

Brunelleschi saw valuable clues
in the Pantheon's design.

He wanted to discover
not only the proportions of it

but also the nuts and bolts
of how it was built.

What particularly struck
the contemporaries

was the size of the dome

and the fact that it was
one of the very few complete domes

that had survived from ancient times.

The architects of ancient Rome
had framed the Pantheon with timber

and poured their concrete dome
over the top.

But there was not enough timber
in all of Tuscany

to build a scaffold
inside Florence Cathedral.

Brunelleschi's dome
would have to support itself

throughout the building process.

Even the recipe for concrete
had been lost since the fall of Rome.

But, through intense study,

the Pantheon gave up its secrets
to Brunelleschi.

He was inspired
by its clever double skin.

So Brunelleschi used the idea
of the Pantheon's strong circle,

placing an inner dome
within the cathedral's octagonal drum.

Sandstone rings would hold
the structure together like a barrel.

It was an ingenious
and completely original idea.

In practice, however, Brunelleschi
was entering uncharted territory.

When Cosimo returned to Florence,
work on the dome had begun.

You'd have the sound of hammers,
you'd have the workmen in the streets,

summoned by the bells
from their beds.

It was a scene of chaotic activity,

sort of like New York in the 1920s
when the first skyscrapers are going up.

Brunelleschi came fresh to building sites
with his own ideas.

The workers ate their lunches
up on the dome

because he didn't want them descending
in the middle of the day to have lunch

because they'd be exhausted by the time
they got back up the 350, 400-odd steps.

But he also served wine to them

because that was really the drink you had
in Florence, much safer than water.

But he did make certain
that your wine was diluted.

You put a third part water in,

which was the drink given
to pregnant women at the time.

But as Brunelleschi's dome
began to rise,

the health of Cosimo's father
began to fail.

Giovanni de' Medici knew the dangers
that lurked in the streets of Florence.

Although rich, he had taken pains
to retain an aura of modesty.

A man who rode on a mule
did not invite attack.

Giovanni offered his son a warning.

"Be wary of going
to the Palace of Government.

"Wait to be summoned.

"Do what you are asked to do
and never display any pride.

"Always keep out of the public eye."

In 1429, Giovanni de' Medici died.

The city of Florence
mourned a modest patron.

But Cosimo de' Medici
had lost his guide and mentor.

Local custom dictated

that Giovanni's corpse be passed
through the walls of his home.

The wall was then sealed behind him.

Giovanni was laid to rest
in the Church of San Lorenzo,

rebuilt by Brunelleschi
along classical lines.

It was now a magnificenttemple
to the Medici family.

Giovanni's death cast a shadow
overthe future of the family.

Now Cosimo had to assume
his father's role.

But how could he build
on his father's legacy

and still keep out of the public eye?

Cosimo's rivals, the Albizzi family,
had governed Florence for generations.

They were wary of any challenge
to their power.

If the Medici and their followers
have more authority,

the Albizzi and their followers
have less authority.

Both parties can't win.
One party has to go.

A battle between rival families

would endanger not just the future
of the Medici dynasty.

It would threaten to drag Florence
back into the world of the Middle Ages.

Meanwhile, Brunelleschi also tried
to escape the limitations of his age.

Brunelleschi was not only
an architect, he was an engineer.

He had to solve enormous logistical
problems when he was building the dome.

Foremost among the problems
was how to raise sandstone beams,

weighing 1,700 pounds,
250 feet in the air.

What he devised was unprecedented
in the history of engineering.

Oxen had great strength,
great stamina,

but would not walk backwards
for more than a few steps.

So what Brunelleschi devised
was a way of reversing a gear

so he could raise a load
several hundred feet in the air,

change gear, and then
bring the hook back down

so that the oxen only ever walked
counter-clockwise or clockwise,

whichever he wanted.

But there was still no guarantee

that Brunelleschi's intricate design
would stand up.

The city of Florence was nervous...

and no one more anxious than Cosimo.

His patronage of Brunelleschi
was well known.

Nothing could please
Cosimo's enemies more

than to see Brunelleschi fail.

As Cosimo's wealth
and power increased,

so did the resentment
of the ruling Albizzi family.

They were losing their grip
on the government of Florence.

Sensing the danger, Cosimo transferred
vast sums of money out of the city

and made sure his family was safe.

Florence is always constructed
around large, powerful families.

They run the city.

So for families like the Albizzi,

for the Medici to suddenly get ahead
in this way is absolutely devastating.

And so this is a crucial moment

where the infighting
gets actually quite nasty.

In moments
of keen political struggle,

and Florence was there
in the 1420s and '30s,

there were
no holds barred.

You bribed,

you killed,
you intimidated

in order to win friends
and influence people.

On the 7th of September 1433,

Cosimo was summoned
to the Palace of Government.

The Albizzi were waiting for him.

They had hatched a plot
to wipe out the upstart Medici.

"When I arrived in the palace,

"I found a majority of my companions
already in the midst of a discussion.

"After some time, I was commanded
by the authority of the Signoria

"to go upstairs."

Cosimo was now in grave danger.

Even the family's trusted consigliere
had been tortured

to uncover evidence against the Medici.

Cosimo was at the mercy
of his enemies.

"I was taken by the captain of the guard
to the cell known as the Barberia."

He is imprisoned
in the topmost room

at the very top of the tower
of the Palace of Government.

He thought he'd be flung to the ground,
that was his first fear,

that he'd just be pushed out the window,
because this happened quite a lot then.

And his entire family was terrified
that they'd never see him again.

But in a republic,

not even the Albizzi could dictate
the fate of a citizen of Florence.

They had to have
the consent of the people.

A referendum was called
to decide Cosimo's future.

The Albizzi hired soldiers
to guard the piazza.

Cosimo's friends
were physically barred.

Cosimo was accused of treason
against the city and her people.

A vote was taken.

Cosimo was found guilty.

Now, he faced execution.

But Cosimo had friends
even in the enemy camp.

From his cell, he engineered
a secret negotiation for his life.

Money talked and Cosimo walked.

Probably the reason
why his life was spared

was because, as he says
in his own memoir of the event,

that he paid his jailers
a hefty bribe to let him out.

"They were not very bold.

"They could have had 10,000
or more for my safety."

Cosimo had survived,
but he and his family were now banished

and Florence was in the hands
of the Albizzi.

No friend of Cosimo was safe.

Brunelleschi himself was thrown into jail
and work on the dome was abandoned.

But life in Florence without Cosimo
wouldn't be easy.

The Medici bank had funded
most of the city's commercial activity.

Florentine business
soon ground to a halt.

Cosimo's supporters begged him
to return and retake the city by force.

But Cosimo remembered
his father's advice.

"Wait to be summoned".

Cosimo waited.

He knew that, without money,

the people of Florence
would soon tire of the Albizzi.

He was right.

Within a year, the Albizzi
had lost control of the city

and turned on the people themselves.

They attacked the Palace of Government

but were held off
by the captain of the city guard,

a loyal friend of the Medici.

But Cosimo had
even more powerful friends.

Agents of the pope
descended on Florence.

This time
the Albizzi had gone too far.

Cosimo's exile was now over.

"At sunset they bid us come,
and we set forth with a great following.

"The people crowded the piazza

"and in the palace
were many armed men for security."

When Cosimo was offered control
of the city of Florence,

he modestly accepted.

Revenge on the Albizzi
was selective but severe.

Cosimo preferred
plain and simple gestures.

A loss of good face
was a badge of public humiliation,

a public threat to all challengers.

The Medici were back in business.

A friend described Cosimo's new power.

"Political questions
are settled at his house.

"The man he chooses holds office.

"It is he who decides peace and war
and controls the laws.

"He is king in everything but name."

Money began to flood back
into Florence.

Brunelleschi led his workers
back to the dome.

And the Medici bank continued to grow.

It was basically under Cosimo
that the bank expands

from this really powerful, solid base.

But where the money was
was diversifying internationally,

in having branches
from Barcelona to Bruges to Cairo.

On behalf of the Church,

the Medici bank collected money
from every parish in Europe.

No one was exempt.

And Cosimo's agents threatened
excommunication from the Church

to those who were slow to pay up.

The pope himself opened
a huge credit line with the Medici,

enough to buy ten palaces.

The Medici bank was now the most
profitable business in Europe.

But wealth had never been
enough for Cosimo.

He began to commission
the finest craftsmen of his age.

Cosimo developed a strategy

in spending money in such a way

that wealth would be transformed
into prestige and power.

Cosimo de' Medici became
the most sought-after patron in Florence.

Cosimo spent
600,000 golden florins in patronage,

which is six times
the total state entry for one year.

Patronage is great
for the production of art

but totally irrational
from an economic point of view.

Patronage is a political strategy.

This, in my opinion, is one of the keys
to understand the Renaissance -

this high political competition
expressed through patronage

in a city where those art potentialities
gave birth to an art market

that has no equivalent
elsewhere in Italy at the time.

Why the artist needs
the patron is very simple -

there are no public art markets
in the Renaissance as we have today.

You didn't make art
and then put it in the shop window

and wait for someone to buy it.

You only made art
when somebody commissioned it from you

and paid you for it,
more or less in advance.

But sometimes, as Cosimo discovered,

payment alone didn't guarantee results.

He had particular problems with
the wayward monk and artist Filippo Lippi.

Lippi was put into the monastery
because he was an orphan,

not because he asked to go,
and he really wasn't suited for that life.

He was always breaking out and chasing
after women and this sort of thing.

One of the things
that Cosimo understood

is that you get better work
out of people when people are happy.

So, rather than yelling at them
and being imperious and demanding

and holding them to the letter
of every little contract,

you might get better work
and more reliable work

if you treated them like human beings

who have other needs
and have another life.

Cosimo didn't care.

"If you show up for work and you do
what we've commissioned you to do,

"you can do anything you want
on your own time."

Cosimo tolerated his temperamental
artists because of their talent,

and their talents
were now widely recognized.

You have to be difficult
as an artist in these times

because you are under a lot of pressure.

Seventy percent of Renaissance artists
were active in Florence at the time.

Though there are a lot of patrons
and a lot of money available,

not all of the projects would grant
the same kind of dignity

and visibility to the artist

who has to self-promote himself

and who has to achieve
certain standards of credibility and fame

in order to be able to be put
in charge of the best projects.

The man working on the best project
in Florence was Filippo Brunelleschi

and he continued to break boundaries
of conventional understanding.

He simply saw the world
as no other man had.

In 1434,
Brunelleschi unveiled a new technique

that radically changed Western art.

He invented perspective.

Brunelleschi developed
linear perspective

which allowed pictures to create

the convincing illusion
of a three-dimensional space

where Gothic art is primarily flat

to represent objects
as three-dimensional, rounded, solid forms

imitating the appearance
of the natural world.

Perspective revolutionizes everything.
It revolutionizes art.

But then, of course,
it revolutionizes how we see, completely.

It creates a modern way of looking.

But it begins in the 15th century

and it very much begins under Cosimo,
with Brunelleschi.

Cosimo had broadened his circle
of radical friends.

Amongst his favorites
was a notorious sculptor...

Donatello.

Cosimo had a kind offondness
for Donatello.

They really were very close friends.
He used him for a lot ofprojects.

But it was closer than that.
It was really a kind of personal loyalty.

But Donatello's talent came at a price...
his violent temper.

He was known to smash
his own creations

rather than to sell
to an unappreciative client.

There were incidents where Donatello
would be snubbed by other people

or snide remarks would be made.

And Cosimo went out of his way to show
that he was still friends with Donatello

and that he didn't care about
these sorts of minor personal matters,

that this was basically
an honest, upright, talented individual

who deserved to be treated
with the utmost respect.

Cosimo was one of the few friends
Donatello trusted,

and Cosimo had commissioned
a truly radical work of art.

Donatello's David was one
of the most revolutionary works of art

in the 15th century because it was
the first time since the ancient Romans

that anyone had tried to make
a freestanding bronze sculpture

of a nude man.

The helmet that's on the ground
that David is standing on,

with Goliath's head in it
as a symbol of victory,

has a long feather
attached to the helmet

that goes all the way up
the thigh of the David,

and you can read that
as a kind of erotic caress.

Such a sensual art was frowned upon
by many in Florence.

Donatello's David
is on the edge

because Florence, more than
any other city of the Renaissance,

was associated to "sodomia,"
sodomy and homosexuality.

There have been 14,000 people tried by
the Florentine tribunal in the 15th century

for having committed the crime of sodomy.

So he was really playing
with something very dangerous.

But he was willing to take more risk
than some of his contemporaries.

Cosimo gives a space
to artists and writers to develop new ideas

that are outside the orthodoxy
of the Catholic Church.

Art is really where it's happening.

Art and sculpture and architecture

are pushing forward the boundaries
of what it's possible to actually do.

No one in Florence was taking
more risks than Brunelleschi.

His magnificent dome
was rising even higher.

But with each new brick,
the angle of the dome increased.

This was the critical phase
of Brunelleschi's design.

One of the major problems
Brunelleschi faced in building the dome,

and particularly
when he got to the upper reaches,

was how he could prevent
the bricks from falling inwards.

What Brunelleschi did was to insert
bands of vertical brickwork

to tie the horizontal courses
to these vertical ones,

which were keyed to courses
five, six rows beneath that

where the mortar had dried.

Brunelleschi's herringbone design
was untried and untested.

The slightest miscalculation
could result in catastrophic failure.

It would have been a disaster,
but I would say not as much a disaster

in terms of not completing
an architectural project,

but a disaster
in failing in producing

the most grandiose symbol
of Florentine pride ever.

From his patrons to his workers,
all looked on in disbelief.

Brunelleschi had to prove
that he was right.

Brunelleschi was
a very hands-on person.

Not only did he inspect
many of the bricks that were used

and sent consignments back
if they weren't quite up to snuff,

he also actually laid
some bricks himself.

The workers weren't certain at all
that this was a viable proposition

to lay these
on an inward-curving vault,

and so he himself went up
and practiced what he preached.

The genius of Brunelleschi
had defied all doubt and danger.

And in 1436, Brunelleschi, who has
been keeping the faith all this time

that he could build that dome
without aid of scaffolding

or any other visible support,

has brought, as he writes
in a little poem he wrote,

"this miracle to pass."

This great achievement had mirrored
the rise of the city's most powerful family

and now it towered majestically
over the city of Florence,

the greatest architectural feat
in the Western world.

Cosimo basked
in the dome's reflected glory,

inviting the pope himself
to conduct the consecration.

If Cosimo could have looked
into the future,

he would have seen
the story of the Renaissance

unfold on the ceiling of the dome itself.

Weighing 37,000 tons and using
more than four million bricks,

Brunelleschi's dome was proof that man
could conquer the seemingly impossible.

A friend of Cosimo's wrote of its impact.

"It touches the skies

"and casts its shadow
over the whole of Tuscany."

Cosimo was quick
to capitalize on the triumph.

He planned a dazzling
international spectacle...

the Council of Florence.

It would be a global showcase
for the magnificent new dome

and a celebration
of Florentine art and culture

which had blossomed
under Cosimo de' Medici.

The Council brought together
the greatest mix of thinkers, artists,

merchants and churchmen
that the world had ever seen.

News quickly spread
of the birth of a new Rome

on the banks of the River Arno.

In the streets and in the piazzas,

the cultures of East and West
were brought together

and bankrolling it all
was Cosimo de' Medici.

The most interesting thing he does

is pay all the travel expenses
of all the people from exotic places,

like India and Ethiopia.

Messengers are sent out to call people
from these far-distant lands

which are literally mythic
to the Florentines.

They're the stuff of legend.

Cosimo's guests gazed in wonder
at an explosion of art and culture

in the shadow of Brunelleschi's dome.

Cosimo was thrilled.
He set up public lectures on Plato.

It was just the best thing possible.

And, of course, it also gave him
this great political cachet.

It was the culmination
of everything he'd ever wanted.

Cosimo is now the great intercessor
for the Florentine people.

He truly is their patron,
their godfather, in every sense.

Cosimo had overseen
the triumph of his city

but at heart the godfather of Florence
remained a cautious man.

"I know the humors of my city.

"Before 50 years have passed,
we shall be expelled.

"But my buildings will remain."

In his final years,

he baptized and then buried
both a son and a grandson.

On Cosimo's death, in 1464,

the city of Florence declared him
Pater Patriae...

Father of the Fatherland.

But who was left to lead the Medici?

Who would fill the shoes
of the godfather of the Renaissance?