This volume explores the social, political and economic background to the great works of art of the Florentine Renaissance. It shows how artistic patrimony rests on a firm Gothic base, from which grew a dynamic urban society whose secular values were underlined by the rediscovery of pagan antiquity. The book explores why works were commissioned and by whom, and unveils the hierarchy of values that underlay such choices - architecture valued over art, technique over aesthetic beauty, bronze over other metals. It also traces the emergence of the artist from the ranks of the artisan or engineer, culminating in the genius of Michelangelo, and explores the place of art in everyday life - in street tabernacles, devotional images, portraiture, domestic furnishings and embroidery.