The Medici Archive Project: Unearthing the Renaissance

This month Samuel Morrison Gallacher from the Medici Archive Project came to the British Institute to discuss the important work undertaken by this charity-funded scheme.  Despite there being an abundance of archival libraries around Florence they are notoriously difficult to access and often require special permission from authority figures.  Visitors are normally restricted from taking photographs and are further constrained to a particular time frame that prevents a truly in-depth analysis of selected material.

The Medici Archive Project seeks to amend these issues by making archival documents freely available to scholars worldwide.  These works, which comprise four million letters, span from 1537 to 1743 and include the writing of iconic Renaissance figures like Michelangelo.  Utilising technology, the MAP is undertaking the copious, yet incredibly beneficial task, of organising and uploading this information to an easily accessible online database.  Each original letter will be accompanied by an English transcript and be searchable by relevant tags.  These topographical, geographical and biographical tags are an essential feature of the 'Digital Interactive Platform', enabling the researcher to uncover information from less obvious sources.  Consequently, Renaissance scholars of the 21st century may develop more interdisciplinary arguments, or potentially unearth historical revelations!

The work of the Medici Archive Project contributes to our developing perception of Italy under Medici rule.  In the future, the translation of these letters may fill in missing pieces of Renaissance history, unravel scandals, or legitimise/discredit anecdotes (that's right Vasari!).  It pushes us one step further to a more complete understanding of Renaissance Italy.  Covering a variety of diverse subject-matter, the impact this project will have on Renaissance studies is unprecedented.

Miles of Books!

Under the guidance of Samuel Morrison Gallacher, High Renaissance students were lucky enough to translate a letter written by Michelangelo (a photo-copied version!).  Unravelling this text was a fascinating exercise - it enabled us to conceive the sculptors personality and delve into the Renaissance from the inside.  Affirming his temperamental reputation, Michelangelo lacked grammatical coherence using little to no punctuation at all, as if his thoughts had simply flown from his mind directly onto paper.  Michelangelo's abbreviated writing was nevertheless consistent, enabling us to unpick the meaning of the text despite our lack of Italian!  The subject-matter was revealing, drawing upon his disputes with the Pope and locals of Carrara in regards to material for sculpting and architecture.  It is neglected, yet invaluable, archival material such as this that the Medici Archive Project are currently contextualising and publishing in the service of future scholarship.

Portrait of Michelangelo in Raphael's
'The School of Athens', 1509-1510.

The Medici Archive Project also holds a yearly 2-week seminar on palaeography at the library of Santa Maria Novella and a 12-week online course.  Under the guidance of experts, these courses provide researchers with the tools to identify typologies and scriptural conventions, enabling individuals to 'navigate' seemingly intimidating archival material.  Further, the MAP undertakes research projects on subject-matter like the 'Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists in the Age of the Medici' and the 'Jewish History Program'.

The 'Digital Interactive Platform' is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and may be accessed via this link: 
http://bia.medici.org/DocSources/LoginUser.do;jsessionid=3A3A619E54F8420D44086271288C595B

- Ellie Porter, HOA Intern.

An Alchemist Goldsmith: The Contemporary Workshop of Alessandro Dari.

The craft of the goldsmith is one deeply engrained in Renaissance art history.  It played a fundamental role in shaping the style of masters like Ghiberti and Botticelli, who were two of many to receive their artistic training in goldsmiths’ workshops.  The meticulous process of manipulating precious materials like gold and silver requires an artisanal capacity regularly overlooked by scholars even today.  As an intricate rather than imposing art form, often commissioned by specific patrons for private objects (i.e. reliquary holders), the role of the goldsmith is continually undermined.

Ghiberti, 'Gates of Paradise', Adam and Eve, Baptistery of San Giovanni.

Only a glance at the elaborate techniques employed in the formation of precious objects is enough to reveal the goldsmith’s virtuosity.  Why history relegates such complex works of art to a status beneath the more “prestigious” mediums of painting and sculpture remains a mystery.  Maybe this hierarchy is derived from the political authority of public monuments as permanent metaphors of divinity, wealth and power, or even Michelangelo’s theory of sculpture’s as encompassing both the physical body ‘la vita attiva’ and the soul encased within it, 'la vita contemplativa’.  More so, this notion of the metalworker as less “artistic” than the painter may be a response to the formulaic techniques and pictorial repertoire of the goldsmith, which on the outset restricts imaginative content.

Michelangelo, David, La Vita Attiva
(front view), 1501-1504.

But how wrong we would be to think that no goldsmith could surpass the traditional boundaries of his medium!  The craftsmanship of contemporary goldsmith Alessandro Dari clearly demonstrates the multi-faceted potential of precious metal.  His jewellery and sculpture combines painterly innovation with sculptural dexterity to produce ornate art forms embedded with symbolic meaning.

Alessandro Dari is a self-taught master goldsmith whose unique work has recently been purchased by Florence’s Museo degli Argenti.  Here it will be displayed besides generations of priceless Medici treasure, aligning his own artistic achievements with the influential expertise of his predecessors. 

Dari’s museum-workshop is located on via San Niccolo 115 in the Nasi-Quaratesi palace, where his jewellery and sculpture is open to public viewing.  This compact, enchanting space displays Dari’s thematic collections in glass pyramids amidst apothecary jars and Renaissance guitars.  His jewellery collection, comprised of rings, necklaces and other abstract adornments, are inspired by a diverse range of subjects ranging from Gothic architecture and Etruscan art to Sin, Metamorphosis, Love and Music.

But the most overwhelming stimulus behind Dari’s jewellery is the practice of alchemy – an exercise deemed fraudulent and corrupt during the Renaissance period.  Dante, in his ‘Inferno’ even equated the alchemist’s experiments with the sin of usury or money lending, which at the time merited eternal damnation.  It was conceived as a heretical practice in which the alchemist meddled with nature and incurred material changes as if by some inexplicable “black magic”.  For the devout Catholic, these earthly transfigurations were solely the work of divine manipulation and should not be tampered with by human hands.

So what did this mysterious alchemy wish to achieve?  Essentially, the alchemist sought methods of turning base metal into gold.  These experimenters therefore prefigured the practice of chemistry and even the discipline of science itself.  Dari’s collection ‘Alchemy & Magic’, created between 1992-1993, combines these spiritual, ritualistic conceptions of alchemy with the scientific process of transforming a slab of metal into precious gold.

Dari believes that whilst the goldsmith alters the external shape of metal, the atoms and electrons at the objects core also change in nature of their own accord.  This change is immaterial and responds to the physical transformation of the objects outer shell.  Beyond the control of human hands, this ‘natural’ or ‘material energy’ is recognised by Dari as ‘exclusively divine’. 

Much of Dari’s jewellery also refers to memories of his childhood or particular loved ones, both living and deceased.  For instance, the Gothic tracery of jewellery created for his ‘Church’ collection during the two-year period 1993-1994 recall the architecture from his hometown of Siena.  Similarly, collections like ‘Space and Time’ and ‘Music’ reflect Dari’s personal passions.  The goldsmith here integrates clock and instrument mechanisms within his designs to create complex metaphors.

Whilst much of Dari’s collections are constructed around a wearable base, the goldsmith transforms metal into sculpture and therefore instils his jewellery with meanings more profound than adornment.

Alessandro Dari succeeds in elevating the art of the goldsmith to its rightful place alongside sculpture and painting.  It is due to innovators like Dari that we may begin to rewrite the traditional canon of art history and acknowledge the prestigious status of forgotten artisans. 

- Ellie Porter HOA Intern.