Lorenzo Lotto

“O human race born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou fall.” With his allegorical writing style, Dante Alighieri revolutionized literature in the renaissance period with masterpieces such as Dante’s Inferno. Dante Alighieri was born on May 21, 1265 in Florence, Italy. He was born to a wealthier family and had a good education as he learn poetry, philosophy, and many other literature skills he used in his writing. From the outside, his life looked perfect though his mother…

in 1447. Pope Sixtus IV attempted to assassinate Lorenzo de Medici and his brother (Greenblatt 14). In retaliation, the people of Florence imprisoned everybody involved in the assassination and hanged the archbishop of Florence (Greenblatt 14). The Pope went to war against the Medici family in response to this. He attempted to use the church's influence to draw the King of Naples, a military ally, into entering the conflict (Greenblatt 15). Lorenzo de Medici managed to use skillful diplomacy to…

I am Florence Nightingale. I was born on May 12th, 1820 in Florence, Italy. My parents were inspired by the city to name me. My parents are William and Frances Nightingale. My father was a wealthy landowner and owned three estates. My mother was a British socialite known for her beauty. I am the youngest of the two daughters and also less important, according to my parents.1 My sister, Parthenope, and I were complete opposites.2 My sister and I were raised to be very social since our family was…

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Although Saint Aloysius Gonzaga has passed, his influence, story, and legacy will not be forgotten. Aloysius Gonzaga was born on March 9th, 1568. He was born in Italy to a family of power. Throughout Gonzaga’s life he endured major sickness, a conversion to the Jesuits, and a death caused by disease. Saint Gonzaga’s legacy has been remembered to this day through the naming of numerous schools and a university (“Society of Jesus”). Although his life was cut short by…

I found Brunelleschi's design of the dome for Florence's cathedral to be a fascinating topic on scientific discovery. I also chose this topic because several years ago I watched a documentary that showed the construction of a one-fifth scale model of Brunelleschi’s dome and the possible construction methods that he may have used. The story begins in Florence, Italy in the year 1296 when the fathers of the city had decided to build a church to “showcase the status of Florence as one of Europe’s…

The Renaissance was a period in Europe, from the 14th to the 17th century, which was widely regarded as a cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern times. It started as a cultural movement in Italy, and though this cultural movement of extravagant arts and political ideals many Italian city states and merchant families began to internally compete with each other in a cyclical trend of showman ship. This showmanship was intended to project the ideas of cultural superiority upon…

Florence was one of the five major city states that rose as a result of the “Dark Age” and black plague. After this, the guild system was rarely used and wealthy, powerful families began to rule (which in Florence was the Medici family). Florence played a major role in the Renaissance because it encouraged and promoted art and culture; it became the center for literature and art and supported those writers and artists affluently. Patrons were the largest supporters for scholars, writers, and…

training started when someone was around ten years old, while Michaelangelo attended school until he was thirteen- his incredible gifts became apparent immediately. Despite plans for a three-year term, Michaelangelo learned all he could after just one. Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Grand Duke of Florence, then took him under his wing which helped Michaelangelo meet important intellectuals and gave him access to the Medici art collection. Michaelangelo soon left Florence due to political turmoil…

Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi’s 1449 piece, The Triumph of Fame (Desco Da Parto di Lorenzo De’ Medici) stands out as a key work of the time period. Foremost, the subject matter seems to call to attention both a mythologized scene recalling characters of antiquity presiding over the representations of persons who were presumably alive at the time of the commission, all gathered for the birth of the new family heir, Lorenzo De’ Medici. Of equal importance to this is the medium of which the piece…

In a time when ideology and convictions were shaped by the church, a new ideology was on the horizon that would begin the revolutionary transformation of the western world into what we know as the renaissance period. This new way of thought was brought about due to certain doctrines of the Catholic church that was viewed as uncanonical and dogmatic. The idealistic movement of Renaissance humanism’s spread throughout first Florence and then western Europe was greatly due to men with common…