Disillusionment

I've been preparing for my Art History II class, looking particularly at 15th century Florentine early Renaissance art. I decided to check into a historical figure a little more deeply. His name is Girolamo Savonarola. When I was younger, I was taught that he was a great early pre-Luther reformer. Turns out, he was an ignorant dictator.

From wikipedia...."They sent boys from door to door collecting items associated with moral laxity: mirrors, cosmetics, lewd pictures, pagan books, gaming tables, fine dresses, and the works of immoral poets, and burnt them all in a large pile in the Piazza della Signoria of Florence. Fine Florentine Renaissance artwork was lost in Savonarola's notorious bonfires, including paintings by Sandro Botticelli thrown on the pyres by the artist himself."

That last line makes me sad. Reformer? I think not.