CANTO XXI

Great art does not depend on the support of riches, but without such aid it will be individual, separate, and spasmodic; it will not group and become a great period. The individual artist will do fine work in corners, to be discovered after his death. […] Great art does not depend upon comfort, it does not depend upon the support of riches. But a great age is brought about only with the aid of wealth, because a great age means the deliberate fostering of genius, the gathering-on and grouping and encouragement of artists.

Ezra Pound “Renaissance” (1914) in Literary Essays 221.

For if Rome was a conquering empire, renaissance Italy evolved the doctrine of the balance of power, first for use inside the peninsula. Italy produced notable peacemakers who based their glory on peace tho’ it came by the sword, Nic. Este, Cosimo, Lorenzo Medici even Sforza condottiero, all men standing for order and, when possible, for moderation.

Ezra Pound Jefferson and/or Mussolini 79.

RELATED CANTOS

CANTO II [classical pastoral]

CANTO VIII [art patronage - the standard of Sigismondo Malatesta]

CANTO XVII [classical pastoral]

CANTO XXIII [gods and the human world: Aphrodite]

CANTO XXXI [Thomas Jefferson]

CANTO XLV [patronage vs usury]

CANTO XLVII [nature and the divine]