While the Italian Renaissance is best remembered for its great artists, without the patronage of Italy’s elite families, very little could have been accomplished. Names like Medici, Gonzaga, Este, and Sforza are as fundamental to the extraordinary artistic production of the Renaissance as Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian. And what better place to explore the role of these Renaissance families than in the home of the Gilded Age – Newport, RI – where families such as the Vanderbilts, Astors, Belmonts, and Oelrichses left behind opulent architectural testimony to their immeasurable wealth.

Both the Italian Renaissance and the Gilded Age witnessed important families providing financial and social support to great artists resulting in timeless masterpieces. This relationship allowed artists to develop new techniques and to push the limits of creativity, while enabling these patrons to fashion legacies for themselves that were linked to cultural history.

This first lecture will explore the history and legacy of the Medici and Sforza families. While the Medici were de facto rulers of the Republic of Florence, the Sforza were instead legitimate dukes of the northern Italian city of Milan.

From their rather modest beginnings to their ascendancy as rulers of Tuscany, the Medici were not only great patrons of the arts, but also major geopolitical players at the beginning of the modern world. The family would not only produce two popes in Leo X and Clement VII, but also become grand dukes of a large portion of central Italy known as Tuscany. Furthermore, artists such as Donatello, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, and Michelangelo would all enjoy Medici patronage.

The House of Sforza in Milan was instead a prominent ruling dynasty in northern Italy. From the moment they seized power in 1450, they began to transform their pre-Alpine city into a thriving cultural center attracting the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Bramante, Luca Pacioli and Francesco di Giorgio Martini.

Both the Este and Gonzaga families served the major states of Italy as “condottieri” – mercenary captains or warlords in charge of an army. The enormous wealth they accumulated selling their military prowess allowed them to transform themselves and their respective cities of Ferrara and Mantua into ideal Renaissance lords and courts.  

In fact, The House of Este is one of the oldest and most prestigious dynasties of northern Italy. Their legacy as noble rulers, patrons of the arts, and astute political actors made the Este one of the most influential of Renaissance families.

While the ruling family of Mantua, the Gonzaga, employed artists such as Andrea Mantegna, Leon Battista Alberti, and Giulio Romano to transform their remote Lombard city into a thriving center for the arts. Whether it’s the “Camera degli Sposi,” the revolutionary Basilica of Sant’ Andrea, or the sumptuous pleasure palace known as the Palazzo Te, Mantua is a true Renaissance treasure.