
The Ugly Renaissance
Sex, Greed, Violence and Depravity in an Age of Beauty
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Morey
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By:
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Alexander Lee
A fascinating and counterintuitive portrait of the sordid, hidden world behind the dazzling artwork of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, and more....
Renowned as a period of cultural rebirth and artistic innovation, the Renaissance is cloaked in a unique aura of beauty and brilliance. Its very name conjures up awe-inspiring images of an age of lofty ideals in which life imitated the fantastic artworks for which it has become famous. But behind the vast explosion of new art and culture lurked a seamy, vicious world of power politics, perversity, and corruption that has more in common with the present day than anyone dares to admit.
In this lively and meticulously researched portrait, Renaissance scholar Alexander Lee illuminates the dark and titillating contradictions that were hidden beneath the surface of the period’s best-known artworks. Rife with tales of scheming bankers, greedy politicians, sex-crazed priests, bloody rivalries, vicious intolerance, rampant disease, and lives of extravagance and excess, this gripping exploration of the underbelly of Renaissance Italy shows that, far from being the product of high-minded ideals, the sublime monuments of the Renaissance were created by flawed and tormented artists who lived in an ever-expanding world of inequality, dark sexuality, bigotry, and hatred.
The Ugly Renaissance is a delightfully debauched journey through the surprising contradictions of Italy’s past and shows that were it not for the profusion of depravity and degradation, history’s greatest masterpieces might never have come into being.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2014 Alexander Lee (P)2014 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















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Realistic look at the Renaissance
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Informative but unfortunately listens like a college textbook
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Nothing new under the sun
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Wonderful!
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Quite disappointing
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That said, this is a wonderful overview of the Italian Renaissance and all of the terrible things that defined it. The scope of this is astounding. It intertwines the worlds of art, merchant banking, politics, religion, and warfare so as to present everything as an inseparable whole. Add in the obligatory additions of disease, cultural differences, and taboos of every kind, and the end result is an amazingly insightful book. If those classic artworks could talk, what stories they could tell.
Incredible Depth and Insight
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Seems a bit Marxist
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Many pdf’s
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Is there anything you would change about this book?
Deliver what the title promises. It's not a revelation that the Medicis were flithy rich bankers who patronized Michaelanagelo and other artists, that artists had personal lives and obligations, that some of them were homosexual, and so on. The Borgias t.v. series has a lot more sex, greed and depravity than this book, and is much more entertaining. This book is really dry.What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The chapter on the mercenaries from as far away as England who became private armies for the Italian city states is the most interesting. The most boring is the chapter on Michaelangelo's family life (his father and brothers, one a deadbeat). Who cares? Also, the love letters with his boyfriend.What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
Didn't like much.Was The Ugly Renaissance worth the listening time?
No. I ended up skipping ahead, waiting for the greed, sex and depravity, which never came.Racy Title, Mundane Story
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Skip it
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