Church, State and Lay Piety
Florence and Venice in the Renaissance HI320
Canaletto, San Pietro di Castello (C18th)
Titian, Doge
Antonio Grimani
presents himself
to the Faith
(Palazzo
Ducale, 1575-6)
Palma il Giovane, Doge Francesco
Venier beseeching the Virgin Mary
(Palazzo Ducale, 1595)
Medici Palace
Chapel,
Florence, with
frescoes by
Benozzo
Gozzoli (145961)
• “in the Italian Republics of the
Renaissance religion ceased to be, as it
had been in the Middle Ages, the
preserve of specialists”
• (J.J. Martin)
Continuities and
Changes
Church and State
• “The church becomes increasingly
more like a state, and the state
becomes more and more involved in
the religious sphere” (R. Bizzocchi)
• Venetian Popes
Gregory XII (r. 140615), Eugenius IV
(r.1431-47)
• nipoti - nepotism
Pinturicchio, Eugenius IV (Siena,
1502-7)
Florence
• Medici Popes Leo X and
Clement VII
• War of the Eight Saints
(1375-8)
• Interdicts 1376, 1478,
1511
Raphael, Leo X with Giulio
de’ Medici (1518-19)
Archbishop of
Florence
Antonino Pierozzi
(Saint Antoninus),
1389-1459
Lorenzo Lotto, St. Antoninus, 1542
Venice
• 1451 Patriarch of Grado
moved to Venice
• Tre savi contra l’eresia
• 1509 Interdict from Julius II
• Giovani resist papal
influence
Gentile Bellini, Patriarch Lorenzo
Giustiniani (1459)
• 1606-7 Interdict
The Parish
Confraternities
• laudesi
• sacre
rappresentazi
oni
Santa Maria
Novella
(Dominican)
Sa
nta
Ma
ria
No
vell
a
Santa Croce
(Franciscan)
San Giovanni e Paolo (Dominican)
Santa Maria dei Frari (Franciscan)
Preachers
• Saint Bernardino of Siena
(1380-44), Saint Antoninus
(1389-1459), Savonarola
(1452-98)
• Bernardino Ochino (14871564)
Religion in everyday
life
• ‘The Merchant of Prato’
Francesco Datini: ‘in the
name of God and profit’
• “Vengeance must fall on thee, thou
filthy whore / Of Babylon, thou breaker
of Christ’s fold” (Petrarch, Sonnets)