AllMovie

Produced in association with Lion Television in the U.K., The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance is a four-part documentary miniseries about the famous financiers of Western art history. Episode one, "Birth of a Dynasty," starts with the family's beginnings in Tuscany during the 15th century. Cosimo de' Medici inherits the world's largest bank from his father and sets up his headquarters in Florence. He makes powerful friends and political allies while cultivating his passions for classical education and the arts. His engineer friend Filippo Brunelleschi builds his greatest achievement, an octagonal ribbed dome on the top of the Florence cathedral. Cosimo also makes friends with Donatello (considered the founder of modern sculpture) and Fra Filippo Lippi (a great influence of Florentine painting). Cosimo de' Medici passes on in 1464 and is honored by being declared Pater Patriae (Father of the Fatherland). The Medici series was first broadcast on PBS in February 2004.