Chapter 3: The Medici and the Entgötterung of the arts

The Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth century was a period that sparked great achievements in painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, music, philosophy, science and technology, and exploration. As a result of the plague pandemic in the century before, more work needed to be done by less men, resulting in great developments in technology which in turn yielded greater agricultural harvests.

One of the most influential (and rich) families of this time is the House of the Medici. Originally a family of usurers and bankers, they tried to masque their relatively simple origin by commissioning works of sculpture, paintings, and architecture for their own personal usage. In this way, effectively the first art school and museum were created, which in turn led to a whole new mental category: that of the fine arts.

Further study materials

Here is a nice description of the different art-forms that the Medici supported.
At the same site, there's a five-point overview of the influence of the Medici during their five centuries reign.
Not really about the Medici, the second part of the documentary The Renaissance is interesting to watch (though not completely correct and a bit American qua styling). It focusses on the technological inventions that led to a new kind of human.

Even more study materials

There's a nice interview with the director of the Accademia delle arti del disegno (in Italian)
I've recorded a small sort of podcast on technological innovations during the fifteenth century. Not really about the Medici, but interesting to observe how artists of that era were also engineers.