Money and beauty. Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities. Exhibition catalogue (Florence, 17 settembre 2011-22 gennaio 2012). Ediz. illustrata

Exhibition catalogue: Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, 17 September 2011 - 22 January 2012. Masterpieces by Botticelli, Beato Angelico, Piero del Pollaiolo,the Della Robbia family, and Lorenzo di Credi - the cream of Renaissance artists - show how the modern banking system developed in parallel alongside the most important artistic flowering in the history of the Western world. The exhibition also explores the links between that unique interweave of high finance, economy and art, and the religious and political upheavals of the time. ''Money and Beauty. Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities'' recounts the birth of our modern banking system and of the economic boom that it triggered, providing a reconstruction of European life and the continent's economy from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Visitors can delve into the daily life of the families that controlled the banking system and perceive the ongoing clash between spiritual and economic values that was such a feature of it. The saga of the art patrons is closely linked to that of the bankers who financed the ventures of princes and nobles alike, and indeed it was that very convergence that provided the humus in which some of the leading artists of all time were able to flourish. The exhibition takes the visitor on a journey to the roots of Florentine power in Europe, but it also explores the economic mechanisms which allowed the Florentines to dominate the world of trade and business 500 years before modern communication methods were invented, and in so doing, to finance the Renaissance.