Savonarola

Toast

Renaissance painter Baccio della Porta ( d. 1517) changed his name to Fra Bartolommeo (Brother Bartholomew) when he became a friar. When the fiery sermons of Savonarola demanded burning of “vanities,” Bartolommeo tossed all his paintings of nudes into the… Read More

Battle of the Bulge-ing Geniuses

Did you know Michelangelo and Leonardo couldn’t stand one another? In the first decade of the sixteenth century, the arch rivals were asked to create murals on the same wall of the Council Hall of Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. The same… Read More

Bonfire of the Vanities

I don’t know why I should continue to be shocked that in this day and age, books are still being banned. Book banning (and burning) has a long and ignominious history. As the Renaissance dawned, great thinkers began to consider… Read More