Vespucci family in context: art patrons in late fifteenth-century Florence
Item Status
Embargo End Date
Date
Authors
Mariani, Irene
Abstract
The
study
of
Florentine
artistic
patronage
has
attracted
several
approaches
over
the
last
three
decades,
including
the
exploration
of
patron-‐client
structures
and
how
the
use
of
art
in
private
and
public
spheres
contributed
to
shape
families’s
identity.
Building
on
past
research,
this
work
focuses
on
the
art
patronage
of
a
prominent,
yet
overlooked,
family,
the
Vespucci,
to
whom
Amerigo,
the
navigator
who
reached
the
coasts
of
America
in
the
late
fifteenth
century,
belonged.
Although
the
family’s
importance
was
achieved
through
a
synergy
of
political,
religious
and
intellectual
forces,
attention
is
given
to
the
Vespucci’s
engagement
with
the
arts
and
their
key
contribution
to
Florence’s
humanistic
culture
between
the
years
1470-1500.
The
family’s
houses
and
private
chapels
are
analysed,
and
three
artists,
Botticelli,
Ghirlandaio
and
Piero
di
Cosimo,
considered.
Combining
history,
art
history,
and
archival
resources,
new
evidence
and
interpretations
are
advanced
to
ascribe
selected
artworks - controversially
believed
to
be
Vespucci
commissions - to
the
private
patronage
of
this
Florentine
family.
Examining
the
Vespucci’s
artistic
taste
in
private
and
public
settings,
whilst
attempting
a
reconstruction
of
partially
lost
painted
commissions,
deepens
comprehension
on
the
role
that
domestic
and
social
life
played
in
the
creation
of
art
and
culture;
the
family’s
force
in
shaping
spaces;
and
the
practice
of
buying,
commissioning,
and
displaying
as
a
means
of
signifying
wealth,
increasing
status,
and
establishing
identity.
Power
seekers,
the
Vespucci
entered
the
Medici
intellectual
circles
through
which
they
created chains of friendship with
prominent families inside and outside of Florence. As questions about shared artistic tastes and
the paradigmatic role of the Medici artistic patronage have been the focus of scholarly
enquiry, this study of the Vespucci provides an insight into the family’s spreading
of new ideas and its interaction with the development of the visual arts.
Investigation into the Vespucci’s breadth of interests helps to reframe the current knowledge of Florentine cultural exchanges and to contextualise
the family’s influence beyond the geographical discoveries
it has been exclusively associated with.
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