Name: Florence: Heart of the Renaissance
Uploaded: 2026-02-02T07:42:46.000Z
Duration: 24 min 58 s
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This time, we explore the city that pulled Europe out of the Middle Ages and into the modern world.

15th century Florence was the home of the Renaissance and the birthplace of our modern Western world.

Within a few hundred yards of where I'm standing, you can enjoy much of the greatest art created during that exciting age.

Gaze into the eyes of Michelangelo's David.

Delve into the 3D wonders of Ghiberti's glorious bronze gates.

Appreciate Fra Angelico's serene beauty, and climb the dome that kicked off the Renaissance.

And beyond the art, Florence knows how to embrace life.

We'll cross the Arno to where Florentine artists live, work and eat very well.

After the fall of ancient Rome, Europe wallowed in centuries of relative darkness.

There was little learning, commerce or travel.

Then, in about 1400, here in Florence, there was a Renaissance.

This exciting rebirth of the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome swept from here all across Europe.

In architecture, the Renaissance brought a return to the balanced domes, columns and arches of the ancient world.

In painting, it revealed realism and emotion.

Artists rediscovered the wonder of nature and the human body.

Portraying beautiful people in harmonious surroundings, they expressed the optimism and confidence of this new age.

The suddenly perky Western civilization made up for lost centuries with huge gains in science, economics and art.

Florence was the center of it all, and for good reason.

This is where capitalism was replacing feudalism, being the middleman of trade between east and West.

The city had money and it knew what to do with it.

Wealthy merchant and banking families like the Medici, who ruled Florence for generations, showed their civic pride by commissioning splendid art.

And Florence, recognizing and paying creative genius like no one else, unleashed an explosion of innovation.

It was a time of confidence, when people worked hard, business was respectable and excellence was rewarded.

The church no longer put a ceiling on learning.

And the great pre Christian thinkers like Plato and Aristotle were back in vogue.

In about 1400 with the advent of the Renaissance.

Man, now alert, begins to stand on his own, moving out of the shadow of the church.

This David, by the early Renaissance Florentine sculptor Donatello, is one of the first free standing male nudes sculpted in Europe in a thousand years.

It's art for art's sake, adorning not a church, but a rich man's courtyard.

While the formal subject is still biblical.

David slaying the giant Goliath's severed head is at David's feet.

Truth be told, it's a classical nude, a celebration of the human body.

A generation before this would have been shocking.

Florence was long an economic powerhouse.

Rather than its church, it's the city hall, once the palace of the Medici family, that towers over the main square.

Michelangelo's David originally stood here.

The original David is the centerpiece of the nearby Accademia Gallery, which feels like a temple to humanism.

The statue was an apt symbol, inspiring Florentines to tackle their Goliaths.

When you look at David, you're looking at Renaissance man.

Artists now made their point using realism.

They did this by merging art and science.

For instance, Michelangelo actually dissected human corpses to better understand anatomy.

Now people realized that the best way to glorify God was not to bow down in church all day long, but

to recognize their talents and to use them.

Artists like Michelangelo even exaggerated realism to make their point.

It was God that powered David to slay the giant.

And Florentines like to think God's favor enabled them to rise above rival neighboring city states.

The nave, like hall leading to David, is lined with Michelangelo's unfinished prisoners struggling to break out of the marble.

Michelangelo believed these figures were divinely created within the rock.

Here we see the Renaissance love of the body as Michelangelo reveals these compelling figures.

While these statues are called unfinished, perhaps Michelangelo was satisfied.

He'd set them free and he moved on to other challenges.

Now that the old center of Florence is essentially traffic free, the city itself is more enjoyable than ever.

Early in the morning, the service trucks make their deliveries.

Then the people happily retake the streets.

The city is easy to navigate and its sites are close together.

Everything in this episode is within a 15 minute walk.

And without the noise and distraction of cars, the architecture is easier to appreciate.

The renaissance lasted roughly two centuries.

The High Renaissance, or 1500s, is well known for the work of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.

But the first half of The Renaissance, the 1400s, is often overlooked.

While the main structure of the Florence Cathedral is medieval, its remarkable dome and much of the art decorating its facade, baptistery and bell tower define this first century of the Renaissance.

The duomo that's Italian for cathedral, is huge, the largest anywhere.

When finished in the 15th century and still in the top 20.

The first of the Renaissance and the first great dome built in Europe in over a thousand years.

The church was built in Gothic times, but

rather than being kept by another spire, it was left with a gaping hole, waiting for technology to catch up with the city's vision.

In 1420, Filippo Brunelleschi won the job and built the dome that kicked off the architectural Renaissance.

Brunelleschi's dome, which inspired those that followed from the Vatican to the U.S.

capitol, showed how art and science could be combined to make beauty.

And today it rewards those who climb to the top with a grand Florence view.

While the Duomo's architecture and statues are impressive, the baptistery across from the cathedral is centuries older.

The baptistery is separate because in medieval times you couldn't enter the church until you were baptized.

Its interior glitters with Byzantine style mosaics created in the 13th century, long before the Renaissance.

These vivid scenes bringing countless Bible stories to life, inspired the medieval faithful.

Jesus sits at the center of it all, overlooking creation.

On Judgment Day, he gives the ultimate thumbs up and thumbs down.

On his right, angel Gabriel blows his trumpet, bringing good news to the saved.

And on the thumbs down, well, you don't want to go there.

Some say the renaissance began in 1401 over the excitement caused by a city wide competition to design and build new doors for the baptistery.

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Florence: Heart of the Renaissance

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