As ‘Paterfamilias’ (Father of the clan) Cosimo de’ Medici, called ‘The Elder’ (1389- 1464) presided over a large household in his old private Palace in Florence. The Family household in the Italian Renaissance society included siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles all under the same roof of the main residence. In his tax return of 1457 Cosimo claimed fourteen dependents for his family and also those of his two sons: Piero and Giovanni. In addition he also listed four household slaves.
The use of household slaves was common in the Italian Renaissance upper class, Slaves in Florence were usually women employed as domestic servants – though there are records of slaves being used in the building industries and a large percentage of babies in foundling hospitals were the children of slaves and, presumably, the master of the house. Many of the children , however, were recognized by their fathers, Cosimo himself fathered an illegitimate son: Lorenzo de’ Medici’s uncle Carlo was born from his relationship with one of his female slaves.
Most slaves were of Middle Eastern or Slavic origin, shipped from Alexandria or other ports on Venetian ships to serve the houses of rich Italian merchants, they were few in number compared with the tens of thousands of impoverished workers, they remained economically insignificant, unlike ancient Rome, the Renaissance Florence economy was not built on the labor of the slaves. Even if , like most Florentine tax payers, Cosimo exaggerated the number of his dependents, it is clear that blood relatives were only a small part of a larger group of people who relied on Cosimo’s social and economic support. “There are fifty mouths to be fed in our family” Cosimo reported on his Tax return of 1458 and we also employ 41 retainers.”
Among those on Cosimo’s payroll were not only simple household servants and humble artisans, but visiting dignitaries, scholars, philosophers such us the great Plato and Aristotle translator Marsilio Ficino, poets, and artists whose names have since become famous. The Medici home, particularly before the completion of the new Palace, must have been in a constant bustle with visiting ambassadors , humanists, distinguished artists, artisans, and scholars of genius as well as common workers and peasants begging favors from Florence’s most powerful citizen.
One of the most distinguished of the Medici house guests was the great friar-painter Fra’ Filippo Lippi, always protected and patronised by Cosimo. Filippo was an orphan who, at the age of 16, took the Carmelite religious vows, in his ‘Lives of the Artists’, Vasari says: “Instead of studying, he spent all his time scrawling pictures on his own books and those of others.” The prior decided to give him the opportunity to learn painting.
Lippi’s painting style was full of naturalism and animation and he’s considered nowadays to be the leading painter of his generation. He was perhaps the greatest colourist and technical adept of his time, with exceptional draughtsmanship, naturalism, his compositions told great stories including semi-humorous incidents and low-life characters. Lippi’s style in fact approaches religious art from its human and not pietistic side. “… so much a slave he was of his amorous appetite “, wrote Giorgio Vasari of the Carmelite monk turned painter, “ that when he was in his humor he gave little or no attention to the works that he had undertaken; wherefore on one occasion Cosimo de’ Medici, having commissioned him to paint a picture, shut him in his own house, in order that he might not go out and waste his time”:
The strategy didn’t work however, because Filippo managed to escape from the Medici Palace with a rope that he was able to fashion out of his bed sheets. When Cosimo finally tracked down the restless monk, he agreed to give him free way to the House, concluding that “The virtues of rare minds were celestial beings, and not pack mules”.
Such was Vasari’s narrative, published less than a century after the alleged events.
Our Slow Tours of Florence take you through insights about several aspects of art and historical characters of Florence and Tuscany. Discover more with our Walking Tour of Florence, Michelangelo and Accademia, our Special Tour of Florence or the Uffizi Gallery & Oltrarno Tour.
