Florence and the Rise of the City State

Florence, the most important city in Tuscany is the birthplace of the Renaissance, the city that for hundreds of years nurtured an unceasing succession of great artists and thinkers. No other place in Italy can rival Florence for the quantity and quality of art and architecture. Works by Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo are all concentrated and easily accessible within the city’s churches, museums, and piazzas fully justifying Florence’s epithet as the cradle of the Renaissance.

Florence is, moreover, one of the loveliest cities in the world, ringed by the foothills of the Apennines and sliced in two by the River Arno. Narrow alleys lead between the graceful piazze while the massive scale of the buildings impressively demonstrates the wealth once generated by its thriving economy. Join Art Historian Elaine Ruffolo for a virtual investigation into the art and history of Florence from the rse of the city-state to the beginning of the Renaissance.