Florence still feels handworked, like burnished gold, and an astonishment of deeply human masterpieces. The jewel box is also beset, overrun by tourists, but who can blame them – we dropped in, mother-daughter duo, for a quick day and a half. We were under the umbrella (it rained) of centuries of wealth, but the stand-out banking family and political dynasty, the Medicis, have always intrigued. As a young art history student, I asked if Cosimo, Piero and Lorenzo’s ruthless capitalism was worth the price for the brilliant Renaissance art they fostered – Fra Lippi, Botticelli, Massacio. I said yes. Vita brevis, ars longa.
History has always had rapacious capitalist mafia powerbroker in office – we have ours now. The difference is ours doesn’t have a shred of civic minded humanism. Our billionaire ego-in-chief can’t compartmentalize and rise above, even for a short time. What if he could be a patron of real culture, not cheesy ersatz stuff. Narcissism has always been a part of patronage; ego and power are part of the deal; real leaders see beyond to the bigger picture.
And who is more beautiful? The art or one’s fellow pilgrim?
It depends which of the fellow pilgrims!
And is there anything more beautiful than your fellow pilgrims?