English
You just have to check out a bit of history to understand how feudalism came down to give way to cities, and with cities came the bourgeoisie. The word bourgeois is definitely a controversial one today, and it´s still used for a particular way of life that means a certain community, education, middle class. That´s how the merchants and businessmen of the Middle Ages, thanks to the skillful handling of business between different regions and countries, began to establish what would be the beginning of the capitalist economic system to which, unfortunately, we´re stuck with and of which we´re seeing its worst tragedies.
But hadn´t it been for many of these merchants and their different manoeuvres to assimilate wealth and power, a lot of the best Renaissance art would never have existed. A good part of patronage as well as the production carried out in the years which came after the feudal era and turned Florence into the European market centre of the time, made possible that artists such as Botticelli, Beato Angelico and Piero del Pollaiolo were able to create magnificent works which last up to today.
So then, which is the relation between art and capital? Certainly, today the capital is suffering a downfall with the global recession, which however still generates an even higher amount of artistic and activist production than ever before. Two different conditions, one of abundance and another of misery, especially moral misery. However, drawing a parallel between both moments is inevitable, and being able to see from this exhibition the links that made possible the management of such works of art, as well as the operations that were carried out then by these first bankers to sustain their wealth. It´s no coincidence that this exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi is being presented on these days, it seems more than appropriate that it´s during a moment in which the middle classes have disappeared, the poor are poorer than ever before and the rich are richer, and the neo-liberal financial system has totally collapsed and now, we have to wait, occupy and be outraged.
Without any shadow of a doubt, there aren´t any immediate exits form the crisis, but it is worth it to attend to the consequences and to the history of the consequences, as to how it has reached such a regrettable level of moral, political and economical crisis around the world. There are more and more groups which form to occupy the streets around the cities in the world. Maybe the bug of the problem that we´ve reached, 400 years too late, is sustained in many of these paintings. In them, perhaps, they can reflect better the present than many of the other images of conceptual and activist art which are presented today. The people around the world are tired of begging for better services or jobs, social security and wellbeing. The root of the problem began a long time ago. For more information on this revealing exhibition in Florence, visit the following webpage: http://www.palazzostrozzi.org/
Get apartments in Florence and enjoy this exhibition which is more than related to the current global situation. To understand the present a bit more, it´s indispensable to go back to the past.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
