Florence: The Renewed Republic Andthe Return Of The Medici Analysis

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Sara Pourghaed John T. Paoletti and Gary M. Radke, “Florence: The Renewed Republic andthe Return of the Medici” The essay starts off my pointing out how Medici lost power of Florence after 2 years of power. His own people threw him out after he allied with Naples and the French king, Charles VIII. After him came who Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola was one of the strongest political voices at the time. He was among the clergy of the monastery of San Marco, but he could not hold office. His preaching of Christian reform were so powerful that it gave a religious cast on republican reform turning the meeting hall of the Great Council into the Hall of Christ. But his interventions in the state proved to be problematic in the end especially…show more content…
In the end Savonarola was thrown out of San Marcos and burned to death for his interventions in the state. These are two example of how Florence freed itself from tyranny in 1494 and 1498. Now that Medici and Savonarola were out of the picture, the Florentines decided they wanted to reinvent the city of Florence. So the Signoria wanted to renew the Florence republic and in order to do that they would commission artists to create new images that would restore the image of the republic power. The history of earlier republic city of Florence was induced in these images as well. The Signoria enforced the removal of several artwork from the Medici palace including Donatello’s bronze David and Verocchio’s bronze David. Donatello’s bronze Judith was moved from the Medici garden to the left main entrance of the Palazzo della Signoria. The statue was an example of public’s well being. The fact that these paintings and statues had been moved to the Palazzo della Signoria introduced the idea of state symbolism. Michelangelo’s David is the most popular of all, which later replaced Judith on the left entrance of the Palazzo. David is famous for its drastic realism and the idea of him being an ordinary man and a hero much like Hercules. This statue suggests that the
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