Six Tuscan Poets is an oil-on-panel painting by the Florentine visual artist and writer Giorgio Vasari, created in 1544. The poets depicted in the painting from left to right are Guittone d'Arezzo, Cino da Pistoia, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, and Guido Cavalcanti. In 2021 it was lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, for the exhibition The Medici: Portraits and Politics, 1512–1570.
The work was commissioned from Vasari by the Tuscan arts patron Luca Martini.
Italian literature is written in the Italian language, particularly within Italy. It may also refer to literature written by Italians or in other languages spoken in Italy, often languages that are closely related to modern Italian, including regional varieties and vernacular dialects.
Italian literature began in the 12th century, when in different regions of the peninsula the Italian vernacular started to be used in a literary manner. The Ritmo laurenziano is the first extant document of Italian literature. In 1230, the Sicilian School became notable for being the first style in standard Italian. Renaissance humanism developed during the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. Lorenzo de' Medici is regarded as the standard bearer of the influence of Florence on the Renaissance in the Italian states. The development of the drama in the 15th century was very great. In the 16th century, the fundamental characteristic of the era following the end of the Renaissance was that it perfected the Italian character of its language. Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini were the chief originators of the science of history. Pietro Bembo was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language. In 1690, the Academy of Arcadia was instituted with the goal of "restoring" literature by imitating the simplicity of the ancient shepherds with sonnets, madrigals, canzonette, and blank verses.
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