Even a short walk around Florence is enough to leave you speechless and awe-struck by the enormous amount of art and beauty in this unique city. If you visit Florence for the first time you will be surprised by finding yourself literally surrounded by art hidden in richly-decorated churches and in the magnificent private palaces of noble families. You will walk through the squares full of statues and the works of art will be all around you.
It is very easy to feel lost between these monuments.
The Florentine buildings talk about the past, they tell fascinating stories about the people who built and who decorated them, about the families who lived between these walls and who, with an enormous effort, made Florence one of the most fascinating and powerful cities in Europe.
One question we ask ourselves is: why did people invest so much money in art during this period?
All of these commissions were quite costly, not so much because of the artists’ salaries, which were not as high as we might think today, but mainly because of the costs of the materials; marble façades of the churches, gilded bronze used for the production of statues, expensive pigments used in painting. You might ask who and why they paid for all that.
If you do not want to feel lost in this historical and artistic jungle, if you want to make the most of your stay in Tuscany, and you want to get an answer to some of these questions, this is where it is more than worth it to go on a private guided tour in Florence. Especially if your guide is an expert: an art historian, restorer or researcher specialized in Renaissance art.
New way of discovering Florence – private expert-led tours
Tailor-made, expert-led tours are the best way for curious travellers to find their way between the artistic treasures of Tuscany. Guide me Florence designs this kind of in-depth, custom itineraries led by professionals with extensive experience in the field of cultural heritage.
These tours, curated by the founder Dr Agata Chrzanowska, art historian, lecturer and researcher, will lead you through the narrow streets of the city and reveal some of the most surprising details and facts about the Florentine history and culture.
In addition to designing custom tours in Florence, Guide me Florence specialises in tailor-made itineraries on a specific subject, which take you around the region. If you want to know more about the Middle Ages or you are fascinated by the history of the Medici family, you can contact Agata directly and arrange your private experience, designed around your interests.
Art and politics in Florence – the Medici tour
The Medici tour in Florence is one of the most fascinating itineraries, which explores the reasons for these immense investments in arts and architecture promoted by the Medici during the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries.
The tour leads you to the heart of the Medicean power in the city and reveals the political implications of artistic endeavours. By following the footsteps of legendary Cosimo the Elder, Laurence the Magnificent and the pope Leo X de’ Medici, we discover the seminal importance of art in the construction of family’s fortune, political power and domination over the Florentine territory.
In fact, did you know that for the Medici art was an extremely efficient tool used to fight and win many important political battles?
During the tour, we visit the Medici’s private palace in via Cavour, commissioned in 1444 by Cosimo il Vecchio. You can admire here the beautiful courtyard and an intimate Magi Chapel frescoed by Benozzo Gozzoli with a lavish representation of the parades of the three Magi. You will be simply amazed by the richness of the decoration, beautiful costumes of the protagonists, symbolical elements of the landscape, hunting scenes and portraits of contemporary Florentines and of the members of the Medici family themselves.
In order to manifest their power and their engagement in the Florentine politics, the Medici not only invested in the construction of their own private palace. Already Giovanni di Bicci, Cosimo the Elder’s father, focused his attention on the Medici’s parish church, San Lorenzo. Giovanni commissioned Brunelleschi the construction of the first funerary chapel for the family, the so-called, Old Sacristy, where the patron would be then buried together with his wife, Piccarda. The entire church, rebuilt according to Brunelleschi’s design, would shortly become a sort of a funerary chapel for the Medici. Here were buried Piero di Cosimo and Giovanni di Cosimo, Laurence the Magnificent’s father and uncle. Here, in a pillar supporting the main nave, was buried Cosimo the Elder, whose tomb symbolically holds up the entire church.
Also Leo X, the first pope coming from the Medici family, invested in the San Lorenzo complex underlining the primacy of the Medici in Florence and in Tuscany.
He engaged to his project the most eminent and famous artist of the period – Michelangelo Buonarroti, who designed for the pope the Laurentian library, the façade of San Lorenzo Basilica and yet another funerary chapel, the so-called New Sacristy. Michelangelo’s work at San Lorenzo revolutionised the canons of architecture. With his magnificent staircase in the Laurentian library, for the first time in the history, an artist used a structural element of a building, the stairs, as an independent work of art.
The San Lorenzo façade has never been finished because at a certain moment the pope abandoned the project and asked Michelangelo to focus on the funerary chapel, the New Sacristy. The sacristy is unfinished too, but we can admire there Michelangelo’s sculpture and architecture linked together with an inseparable bond.
Immersing oneself into the heart of the Medici’s neighbourhood allows us to live a fascinating journey in time during which we meet with the legendary members of the family, namely Cosimo the Eldest and Laurence the Magnificent. We also encounter the most revolutionary artists of the period, Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello and Michelangelo, who worked for the Medici and whose success was made possible thanks to Medici’s generous support. The Medici neededthe artists, the artists needed the Medici; art, power and politics intertwined within a tight knot.
Guide me Florence has been established by Dr Agata Chrzanowska, who after her PhD at the Durham University in the UK, decided to share her immense passion for art and history with a wider public. She offers private, expert-led tours in Florence and in Tuscany, tailor-made experiences designed for curious travellers who want to learn and appreciate the rich history of this territory. Read more about Agata and start planning your private tours in Florence today!
