The Medici and the Etruscans

Research and celebration in the Renaissance.
From early archaeological discoveries to the first collections of the Uffizi

The myth of the Etruscans became famous in Italian and European culture during the Renaissance. Through the study and interpretation of the Etruscans, Tuscan scholars gave the Medici duchy an ideological foundation, enhanced by numerous archaeological finds, including the so-called Great Bronzes (the Chimera, the Minerva and the Arringatore). Cosimo I de’ Medici thus called himself “Magnus Dux Etruriae”, a title that was retained by his descendants.
Cosimo favoured the theories of Giovan Battista Gelli and Pierfrancesco Giambullari, who attributed the foundation of Fiesole and Florence to Noah-Janus at a time after the Great Flood. From the Aramaic language of the first inhabitants of the world, Hebrew and Etruscan language would be born. This would confirm the very ancient origins of the Etruscan civilisation and its superiority over Rome.
The above hypotheses represented identity and political necessities and were credible as long as they were useful. There is, however, a deeper anthropological reality that links the ancient inhabitants of Etruria to Renaissance man: the relationship with a territory of exceptional characteristics and the inspiration derived from the landscape.
The study of the Etruscans has accompanied the history of Florence, involving men of letters and artists such as Donatello, Leon Battista Alberti, Giambologna, Leonardo, up to modern archaeology and the birth of the first Etruscan collections. These were brought together in the Uffizi Galleru and later in the National Archaeological Museum of Florence.