It was my first year in college when I fell in love with the history of Renaissance art and architecture.
 
I'd be lying though if I said that my professor had nothing to do with that newfound penchant.
 
He was salt and pepper grey, distinguished, he dressed neatly in well fitting dress pants and blazer, and he wore a pair of tortoise shell reading glasses that he would excitedly put on during a lecture, when he would pull out a book to read a passage; further driving home his point on each work's signifigance....
 
The room would be darkened except for the image we were studying, projected onto a whiteboard at the front of the classroom. There he would walk back and forth talking about the piece, the tone of his voice changing from adoration to excitement to awe and it was here where he walked, in front of the projection, that he and the art would merge both literally and figuratively.
 
I could not get enough.
 
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The Medici Family was an extremely wealthy and influential family in Florence Italy from the early 1400's until almost 300 years later when the last male heir died. The Medicis where huge proponents of the arts and humanities, one of the earliest was a poet himself. Through their commission work and support of many greats, the arts flourished and the period we know today as the Renaissance, was born.
 
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"Talk Medici To Me" is my ode to not only the Renaissance and the professor who fostered that deep interest, but to all the people out there that strive to keep the arts alive and well: the artists, the art professors, and of course... the collectors.