Patron Subject Visual Analysis Aphrodite of Knidos Contextual Analysis Neo- Platonic thinking

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4 Patron Medici Family Subject Subject of a poem by Angelo Poliziano a leading humanist poet of the day Depicts Poliziano s retelling of the Greek myth in which Zephyrus, carrying Chloris, blows Venus, born of the sea foam and carried on a cockle shell, to her sacred Island of Cyprus There he nymph Pomona runs to meet her with a cloak Visual Analysis The winds move all the figures without effort they are placed in front of a flat background This is a painong of movement captured in line Draperies undulate, rose petals fall Venus is nude female nudes were extremely nude in the middle ages Based upon a Aphrodite of Knidos Contextual Analysis This nudity, even in the Renaissance, could have been controversial but under the protecoon of the Medici it went unchallenged The painongs link to Neo- Platonic thinking helped jusofy the nudity In 1460 Marsilio Finci made the case in his treayise On Love that those who embrace the contempla0ve life of reason will immediatley contemplate spiritual and divine beauty whenever they behold physical beauty 4

5 Contextual Analysis This nudity, even in the Renaissance, could have been controversial but under the protecoon of the Medici it went unchallenged The painongs link to Neo- Platonic thinking helped jusofy the nudity In 1460 Marsilio Finci made the case in his treaise On Love that those who embrace the contempla0ve life of reason will immediately contemplate spiritual and divine beauty whenever they behold physical beauty Meaning FuncAon: This is a painang that is about beauty While many Renaissance arosts style searched to capture and comprehend humanity and the natural world thought raoonal order and observaoon, BoWcelli s linear style is removed from scienofic knowledge and turns towards the poeoc sensuousness behind classical subject maxer and philosophy Like the poets of his Ome he did not directly imitate classical mythology, but used the myths in a way that was soll Onged with medieval romance What feel Medieval about the style of this work?? UlAmately BoKcelli created a style of visual poetry that reflects the love poetry of Lorenzo de Medici The painongs courtliness, lyrical style and the Neo- Platonic funcoon would have appealed to cultured Florence patrons 5

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7 Context In the 1430s and 1440s there was a uprising of placae building in Florence The proliferaoon of palace building was a testament to the stability of the FlorenOne economy and the affluency and confidence of its leading ciozens For a brief while Cosimo de Meidici and his family were exiled from Florence by other elite families because of the consolidated power the Medici family had possessed A^er returning in 1434, Cosimo was aware of the percepoon of public persona and thus chose Michelozzo s design over the more lavish and grand design proposed by Brunelleschi Renaissance PR Michelozzo had worked with Donatello on several sculptures and was influence by Brunelleschi never- the- less Visual Context It is a simple and massive form Heavy rusacaaon on the ground level accentuate its strength Divided in to stories of decreasing height by stringcourses (horizontal bands) which give it unificaoon and coherence Dressed or medium rusacaaon on the second level, and smooth masonry stone on the third level makes the building feel progessivley lighter as the eye moves upward The extremely heavy cornice at the top reverses this effect like its Roman models this cornice is effecovely a lid on the building While Michelozzo borrowed the cornice and rusocaoon from the classical world the building itself is uniquely Renaissance just like the art and family it housed The palaces fortress like façade and classical axribute stand in contrast to the delicacy of the Gothic façade 7

8 Exterior RUSTICATION MEANING 1. This progression it symbolically designates the difference between the floor where business was conducted (the ground floor) and those where the. genole acovioes of the family were conducted. 2. It also suggests power and self- reliance. At this Ome, it was enorely possible that angry ciozens might storm a patrician family's palazzo in furor over poliocal, economic, or cultural differences. 3. It is also quite likely that the heavy rusocaoon of the ground story was an intenoonal reference to the Palazzo Vecchio- - the city hall in Florence- - suggesong that the Medici family was part of a civic poliocal structure that could not be easily dismissed or brushed off Interior Courtyard The inetrior courtyard is the heart of the building, where sculptures would have been put on display The colonnaded courtyard shows Michelozzo s debt to Brunelleschi The first of its kind - an internal court surrounded by an arcade became common in Italian architecture 8