Renaissance Philanthropy

A view of the Ponte Sisto on the Tiber in Rome.

There are many common misconceptions about the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the most common points you hear are how dark the Middle Ages really were and how careless were the rulers of Renaissance Italy. While certainly this is true when compared to our modern standards, it is also true that our knowledge of that time has been deeply poisoned by inaccurate tv dramas and sensationalistic reads. Church-funded science and research was a central part of the late Middle Ages, the popes funded a host of hospitals (which at the time were also hostels), without the thought and independent mindset of the late Middle Ages, there would have been no Renaissance. No, the Renaissance was not a godless time when the center of the universe became man and not God, (just look at the art of the time or who commissioned it) but certainly Humanism brought a renewed interest for the res publica, the public thing. In a previous article, we discussed of the great American philanthropy of the Gilded Age. 

Brunelleschi's Spedale degli Innocenti in Florence.

The Renaissance was the time of the great rebirth of philanthropy, to an extent and a generosity that we haven't witnessed since the end of the 19th century. What were the reasons? Appeasement, politics, soft power, yes - Italy was not France or Spain, and the smaller Italian states mastered the use of soft power through the means of art and culture, and they became very good at it indeed. The cultural centers of the Renaissance were Florence and Rome. In the first, among a host of families that funded churches, chapel and public buildings were the Medici, they funded the Spedale degli Innocenti, designed by non other than Filippo Brunelleschi, it was Florence's main hospital, which functioned until the last century. They sponsored the construction of public galleries, such as the Uffizi, and libraries, such as the Lauretiana in San Marco. Both the lay and the clergy alike benefited from this, the imposing family chapels were a sign of imposing power, but everyone could have understood and appreciated the meaning of those beautiful frescoes. 

The ancient hospital of Santo Spirito in Saxia, restored by Pope Sixtus IV.

In Rome, among a host of papal families that commissioned beauty, functional and not in the same way, was the example of Sixtus IV Della Rovere. He commissioned the Sistine Chapel and its decorations to the greatest masters of the time, but at the same time he funded the reconstruction of hospitals such as Santo Spirito and bridges, such as the Ponte Sisto - his nephew, Pope Julius II, a few years later, continued his work, both in the Church and in the very planimetry of the Urbe. Sixtus IV also founded the world's first museum, the Capitolini in 1471. 

A view of the Capitoline Hill in the 19th century.

Think of the example of the huge Tornabuoni Chapel in Santa Maria Novella, Florence - it was decorated between 1485 and 1490 by Domenico Ghirlandaio and a host of helpers, including a young Michelangelo. The Tornabuoni chapel were one of Florence's most powerful families, by commissioning this set of frescoes with stories from the life of Christ and the Virgin, they were making a power statement, "this is what we can afford, and we can afford it here" - their portraits would pop in between Maries and Josephs. They were also sending a message to their friends: "we are friends with the powerful Medici" - their portraits also appear between Maries and Josephs, and this is how learned people of the time saw these works, they could tell who was who, they could read into the intricate iconography - but how was this work democratic? These frescoes were also the main backdrop to the high altar, while a duke or a cardinal would have read more into it, a God-fearing peasant would have been able to read of the stories of the life of his deity. This is true of this case and a host of other works throughout Italy, the figure of the donor (see image below) is present in so many religious works, devotional or public. This is philanthropy at its best. 

A detail of Ghirlandaio's Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinita, Florence.

While, the Renaissance was in no way a time of modern-day transparency, it was never as violent or unfair as it is depicted in some shows (or at least not as sadistic), and it was never as careless as it was thought. In both cities, the government paid for large celebrations on special days on which everybody would be fed and their thirst quenched. Care for the population and a love for sharing culture and beauty was very much alive at that time, it might have been political, but what's wrong with it. Now I ask myself the usual question, why can't we do the same nowadays?

Ghirlandaio's Birth of the Virgin in the Tornabuoni Chapel.