Friday, October 28, 2011

Renaissance Man.

Ok. So. There was this guy. His name was Cosimo de’Medici. We’ll call him Mo the other Mo.)
And his family was very big and very famous. Three of the people in his family were Popes, Mo’s grandson was called “The Great” and three women in his family were queens. And Mo was the father of his country.
So Mo was responsible for getting the renaissance out the door.
So, Mo lived in Italy. Go figure. So it wasn’t all nice and together like you see it today. It was kinda like Greece was, with a buncha little city-states. They were ruled by rich peeps instead of kings, and they all fought with each other.
One of these city states was Florence, which was the home of Mo. They were bankers, and they had some moneh. And with wealth and power, they decided they’d rule Florence. Nobody stopped them. Mo was the second Medici to rule Florence, and everyone liked him. He liked to read stuffz, and so he bought books directly from the scholars that were fleeing from Istanbul/Constantinople. So Mo just bought the books, which were Greek Manuscripts and stuff from SPA (For those of you who don’t remember, SPA is Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. SPA~!) So Mo spent lotsa moneh on books. He had THOUSANDS of books written in Latin and Greek. He shared his books with people though, so that was good. In fact, he started an academy centered around his books from Plato. The people that studied there were called Humanists, and you can guess what they studied. Most of these peeps left God out of their buzznezz though D:
Some didn’t though!
Anyway, most did leave God out. *le sniffle*
So now let’s talk about some of Mo’s friends. Four of them.
The first was named Philippo Brunelleschi. We shall call him Phil.
AND HE WAS AN ARCHITECT.
So he liked to build stuffz. And he didn’t like the gothic stuff that was old from the Medieval times.


So Phil decided to look at the Greek and Roman stuff. So you can guess why Mo and Phil were friends. In fact, Phil moved to Rome for a little bit so he could look at the ruins. Phil as a famous dome too. It’s called the Dome of Florence. SO ORIGINAL. But he got to do it over some buzznezz with an egg that I’m not going to get in to because it’s a really long story.
So another one of Mo’s friends was a dood named Donatello. We’ll call him Don.
So Don likah tah play wif dah clay.
Well it was probably stone, but whatever.
Don was a sculptor, and like Phil, he liked to study Greek stuffz for his inspiration. In fact, he went to Rome with his good buddy Phil. And Don was a really really good sculptor.
So Don left Rome and went back to Florence. His work spread, and he has a lot of good statues.
Some of you might know Donatello, though to most of you, he's a turtle.
Okbutso.
We need to take a break real quick from Mo’s friends.
Mo influenced a lot of people about humanism stuffz. However, artists were slow with this stuff. There wasn’t a whole lot of Humanism stuffz in their art. Why? Because the church bought a lot of art. And they wanted nice, religious stuffz in their art. So if the artists were Christian, Humanist, or whatever, their work was mostly religious because the Church was paying them.
Ok. So. There were two artists. One was a Monk, and one was a Monk. One was painting sincerely, and the other was just doing it because he was getting paid.
Fra Angelico was the sincere one, and a friend of Mo. Fra was a nice guy. He was gentle and nice and kind and all that jayazz. His work is nice and inspiring, and even though he was invited to live the life of an Arch-Bishop, he decided to continue to live as a Dominican Monk. And Fra made a few paintings for out good buddy Mo.
Something odd about him was that he was still considered a Medieval artist, not a Rennisancian artist. Derp.
So now there’s... The other guy. Fra Philippo Lippi. ...
...
PSHAHAHA.
Ok, ok, sorry.
But.
Uhm.
He was hardly the angle that Fra A. was. Now, Fra P. was a good artist and all, but he had a bad reputation for... mingling with the nuns. He even had... A GIRLFRIEND. *gasp*
So he was asked to leave the monastery. He still got to keep his monk title though.
And this one time Mo LOCKED FRA P. UP IN A CELL TO MAKE HIM FINISH HIS PAINTING. So he decided to tie his bed sheets together and escape.
lulz.
So Soon, Mo died. He was a peaceful guy in his last few years. He was appreciated for all he did for Italy, and everyone grieved over him. He died peacefully, and is honored as the father of the Italian Renaissance.
OHBAITUHWAI.
There's a link up top. No, not the titles. When y'all comment (because I know you will), click the title again. Listen to the beeeutifuhl music from the History Lady, whose name I forgot again :c

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