Death in Florence: Piety and Power in San Lorenzo

The story of the Medici in Renaissance Florence has always polarized opinion, both in popular culture and within academic circles. The family have been seen as either ruthless political manipulators or benign patrons of iconic artists, and the art commissioned by the family, their friends and their enemies, is still interrogated for signs of the struggle for supremacy in the city and beyond. The present volume seeks to challenge this Grand Narrative view with a close investigation of the tombs in San Lorenzo of Giovanni di Bicci, (d.1429 ) , his son, Cosimo il Vecchio (d. 1464) and Cosimo?s sons Piero (d.1469) and Giovanni (d. 1463). By focusing on the three striking elements of these tombs: form, material and location, and then more widely into Florentine burial tradition, the teleological evidence is weighed against other possibilities, countering the traditional views of the Medici name. The book will be of interest to students of the period, especially those curious about how narrative and history are forged into cohesive and compelling versions of the past.