Lorenzo de' Medici - Weeblywildehistory.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/7/0/16706304/lorenzo_de'_medici_-_wikipedia,_the...Lorenzo de' Medici From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lorenzo de

Lorenzo de' Medici

Portrait by Agnolo Bronzino

Ruler de facto of Florence

Reign 2 December 1469 – 9 April 1492

Predecessor Piero the Gouty

Successor Piero the Unfortunate

Spouse(s) Clarice Orsini

IssueLucrezia de' MediciPiero de' MediciMaddalena de' MediciContessina Beatrice de' MediciGiovanni de' Medici, Pope Leo XLuisa de' MediciContessina de' MediciGiuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours

Full nameLorenzo di Piero de' Medici

Noble family House of Medici

Father Piero the Gouty

Mother Lucrezia Tornabuoni

Lorenzo de' MediciFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lorenzo de' Medici (1 January 1449 – 9 April1492) was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler ofthe Florentine Republic during the ItalianRenaissance.[1] Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent(Lorenzo il Magnifico) by contemporary Florentines,he was a magnate, diplomat, politician and patron ofscholars, artists, and poets. He is perhaps best knownfor his contribution to the art world, sponsoringartists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. His lifecoincided with the mature phase of ItalianRenaissance and his death coincided with the end ofthe Golden Age of Florence.[2] The fragile peace hehelped maintain between the various Italian statescollapsed with his death. Lorenzo de' Medici isburied in the Medici Chapel in Florence.

Contents

1 Youth2 Politics3 Patronage4 Marriage and children5 Later years6 In popular culture7 References8 Further reading9 External links

YouthLorenzo's grandfather, Cosimo de' Medici, was thefirst member of the Medici family to combinerunning the Medici Bank with leading the Republicof Florence. Cosimo was one of the wealthiest menin Europe and spent a very large portion of his

Lorenzo de' Medici - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_de'_Medici

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Born 1 January 1449Florence, Republic of Florence

Died 9 April 1492 (aged 43)Careggi, Republic of Florence

Signature

Madonna of the Magnificat showsLucrezia as the Madonna, surroundedby her children with Lorenzo holdinga pot of ink.

The Adoration of the Magi includes severalgenerations of the family and their retainers.Sixteen-year-old Lorenzo is to the left, with hishorse, prior for his departure on a diplomaticmission to Milan.

Paintings by Botticelli which use the Medici family as models

fortune in government and philanthropy. He was apatron of the arts and funded public works.[3]

Lorenzo's father, Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, wasalso at the center of Florentine life, active chiefly asan art patron and collector, while Lorenzo'sgrandfather and uncle, Giovanni di Cosimo de'Medici took care of the family's business interests.Lorenzo's mother Lucrezia Tornabuoni was a poetand writer of sonnets and a friend to poets andphilosophers of the Medici Academy. She became her son's advisor after the deaths of his father anduncle.[3]

Lorenzo, considered the brightest of the five children of Piero and Lucrezia, was tutored by a diplomatand bishop, Gentile de' Becchi and the humanist philosopher Marsilio Ficino.[4] With his brotherGiuliano, he participated in jousting, hawking, hunting, and horse breeding for the Palio, a horse race inSiena. His own horse was named Morello di Vento.[5]

Piero sent Lorenzo on many important diplomatic missions when he was still a youth. These includedtrips to Rome to meet with the pope and other important religious and political figures.[6]

Lorenzo was described as rather plain of appearance, being of average height, having a broad frame andshort legs, a swarthy skin, squashed nose, short-sighted eyes and a harsh voice. Giuliano, on the otherhand, was regarded as handsome; he was used as a model by Botticelli in his painting of Mars andVenus.[7]


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Bust of Lorenzo de' Mediciby Verrocchio (1480).

PoliticsLorenzo, groomed for power, assumed a leading role in the state upon the death of his father in 1469,when Lorenzo was twenty. Already drained by his grandfather's building projects and constantly stressedby mismanagement, wars, and political expenses, the bank's assets contracted seriously during thecourse of Lorenzo's lifetime.[8]

Lorenzo, like his grandfather, father, and son, ruled Florence indirectly,through surrogates in the city councils, threats, payoffs, and strategicmarriages.[9] Although Florence flourished under Lorenzo's rule, heeffectively reigned as a despot, and people had little politicalfreedom.[10] Rival Florentine families inevitably harbored resentmentsover the Medicis' dominance, and enemies of the Medici remained afactor in Florentine life long after Lorenzo's passing.[9] The most notableof these rival families was the Pazzi, who nearly brought Lorenzo's reignto an end when it had barely begun.[11]

On Easter Sunday, 26 April 1478, in an incident called the Pazziconspiracy, a group including members of the Pazzi family, backed bythe Archbishop of Pisa and his patron Pope Sixtus IV, attacked Lorenzoand his brother and co-ruler Giuliano in the Cathedral of Florence.Giuliano was killed, but Lorenzo escaped with only a stab wound. Theconspiracy was brutally put down by such measures as the lynching ofthe Archbishop of Pisa and the death of the Pazzi family members whowere directly involved.[11]

In the aftermath of the Pazzi Conspiracy and the punishment of Pope Sixtus IV's supporters, the Mediciand Florence suffered from the wrath of the Vatican. The Papacy seized all the Medici assets Sixtus IVcould find, excommunicated Lorenzo and the entire government of Florence, and ultimately put theentire Florentine city-state under interdict.[12] When these moves had little effect, Sixtus IV formed amilitary alliance with King Ferdinand I of Naples, whose son Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, led an invasionof the Florentine Republic, still ruled by Lorenzo.[13]

Lorenzo rallied the citizens. However, with little support from the traditional Medici allies in Bolognaand Milan (the latter being convulsed by power struggles among the Milanese ruling family, theSforza),[11] the war dragged on, and only diplomacy by Lorenzo, who personally traveled to Naples,ultimately resolved the crisis. This success enabled Lorenzo to secure constitutional changes within theFlorentine Republic's government which further enhanced his own power.[9]

Thereafter, Lorenzo, like his grandfather Cosimo de' Medici, pursued a policy both of maintaining peaceand a balance of power between the northern Italian states and of keeping the other major Europeanstates such as France and the Holy Roman Empire's Habsburg rulers out of Italy. Lorenzo maintainedgood relations with Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, as the Florentine maritime trade with theOttomans was a major source of wealth for the Medici.[14]


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The Angel appearing to Zacharias, TornabuoniChapel, contains portraits of members of theMedici Academy, Marsilio Ficino, CristoforoLandino, Agnolo Poliziano and either DemetriosChalkokondyles or Gentile de' Becchi

PatronageLorenzo's court included artists such as Piero andAntonio del Pollaiuolo, Andrea del Verrocchio,Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, DomenicoGhirlandaio, and Michelangelo Buonarroti who wereinvolved in the 15th-century Renaissance. Although hedid not commission many works himself, he helpedthem secure commissions from other patrons.Michelangelo lived with Lorenzo and his family forfive years, dining at the family table and participating inthe discussions led by Marsilio Ficino. Lorenzo was anartist himself, writing poetry in his native Tuscan. In hispoetry he celebrates life even while—particularly in hislater works—acknowledging with melancholy thefragility and instability of the human condition. Love,feasts and light dominate his verse.[15]

Cosimo had started the collection of books whichbecame the Medici Library (also called the LaurentianLibrary) and Lorenzo expanded it. Lorenzo's agentsretrieved from the East large numbers of classical

works, and he employed a large workshop to copy his books and disseminate their content acrossEurope. He supported the development of humanism through his circle of scholarly friends including thephilosophers Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.[16] They studied Greekphilosophers, and attempted to merge the ideas of Plato with Christianity.

Apart from a personal interest Lorenzo also used the Florentine scene of fine arts for his diplomaticefforts. An example includes the commission of Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and CosimoRosselli to Rome in order to paint murals in the Sistine Chapel — a move that has been interpreted assealing the alliance between Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus IV.[16]

In 1471 Lorenzo calculated that since 1434, his family had spent some 663,000 florins (approx. 460million USD today) on charity, buildings and taxes. He wrote,

"I do not regret this for though many would consider it better to have a part of that sum intheir purse, I consider it to have been a great honour to our state, and I think the money waswell-expended and I am well-pleased."[17]

Marriage and childrenLorenzo married Clarice Orsini by proxy on 7 February 1469. The marriage in person took place inFlorence on 4 June 1469. She was a daughter of Giacomo Orsini, Lord of Monterotondo and Bracciano


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Lorenzo by GirolamoMacchietti (16th century)

by his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini. Clarice and Lorenzo had 10children:

Lucrezia Maria Romola de' Medici (Florence, 4 August 1470 – 15November 1553); married 10 September 1486 Jacopo Salviati andhad 10 children, including Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, CardinalBernardo Salviati, Maria Salviati (mother of Cosimo I de' Medici,Grand Duke of Tuscany), and Francesca Salviati (mother of PopeLeo XI)Twins who died after birth (March 1471)Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici (Florence, 15 February 1472 –Garigliano River, 28 December 1503), ruler of Florence after hisfather's death, called "the Unfortunate"Maria Maddalena Romola de' Medici (Florence, 25 July 1473 – Rome, 2 December 1528),married 25 February 1487 Franceschetto Cybo (illegitimate son of Pope Innocent VIII) and hadseven childrenContessina Beatrice de' Medici (23 September 1474 - September 1474), died youngGiovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici (Florence, 11 December 1475 – Rome, 1 December 1521),ascended to the Papacy as Leo X on 9 March 1513Luisa de' Medici (Florence, 25 January 1477 – July 1488), also called Luigia, was betrothed toGiovanni de' Medici il Popolano but died youngContessina Antonia Romola de' Medici (Pistoia, 16 January 1478 – Rome, 29 June 1515); married1494 Piero Ridolfi (1467 - 1525) and had five children, including Cardinal Niccolò RidolfiGiuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Nemours (Florence, 12 March 1479 – Florence, 17March 1516), created Duke of Nemours in 1515 by King Francis I of France

Lorenzo also adopted his nephew Giulio, the illegitimate son of his slain brother Giuliano. Giulio laterbecame Pope Clement VII.


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A posthumous portrait ofLorenzo by Giorgio Vasari(16th century)

Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule from the Sassetti Chapel frescos. Among thespectators are Lorenzo's sons, (from the right) Giuliano with their tutor Poliziano, Pieroand Giovanni.

Later yearsDuring his tenure, several branches of the family bank collapsed because of bad loans, and, in lateryears, he got into financial difficulties and resorted to misappropriating trust and state funds.

Toward the end of Lorenzo's life, Florence came under the spell of Savonarola, who believed Christianshad strayed too far into Greco-Roman culture. Lorenzo played a role in bringing Savonarola toFlorence.[18]

Lorenzo de' Medici died during the late night of 8 April or during theearly morning of 9 April 1492, at the long-time family villa of Careggi(Florentine reckoning considers days to begin at sunset, so his death dateis the 9th in that reckoning). Savonarola visited Lorenzo on his deathbed. The rumor that Savonarola damned Lorenzo on his deathbed hasbeen refuted by Roberto Ridolfi in his book, Vita di GirolamoSavonarola. Letters written by witnesses to Lorenzo's death report thathe died peacefully, after listening to the Gospel of the day. Many signsand portents were claimed to have taken place at the moment of hisdeath, including the dome of Florence Cathedral being struck bylightning, ghosts appearing, and the lions kept at Via Leone fighting eachother.[19]

The Signoria and councils of Florence issued a decree:

"Whereas the foremost man of all this city, the lately deceasedLorenzo de' Medici, did, during his whole life, neglect noopportunity of protecting, increasing, adorning and raising thiscity, but was always ready with counsel, authority and painstaking,in thought and deed; shrank from neither trouble nor danger forthe good of the state and its freedom ..... it has seemed good to theSenate and people of Florence.... to establish a public testimonial


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of gratitude to the memory of such a man, in order that virtue might not be unhonouredamong Florentines, and that, in days to come, other citizens may be incited to serve thecommonwealth with might and wisdom."[20]

Lorenzo was buried with his brother Giuliano in the Church of San Lorenzo, in the red porphyrysarcophagus designed for Piero and Giovanni de' Medici, not, as might be expected, in the New Sacristydesigned by Michelangelo. This chapel holds the two monumental tombs of Lorenzo and Giulano's lessknown namesakes, Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours.[21] According toWilliamson and others, the statues of the lesser Lorenzo and Giuliano have been carved by Michelangeloto incorporate the essence of the famous men. In 1559, the bodies of Lorenzo "The Magnificent" de'Medici and his brother Giuliano were interred in the New Sacristy, in an unmarked tomb beneathMichelangelo's statue of the Madonna.[21]

Lorenzo's heir was his eldest son, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, known as "Piero the Unfortunate". Hesquandered his father's patrimony and brought down the Medici dynasty in Florence. The second son,Giovanni, who became Pope Leo X soon afterwards, restored it, but it was only made wholly secureagain on the accession of his great-grandson from a branch line of the family, Cosimo I de' Medici.[21]

In popular culture

A teenage Lorenzo is depicted in CBBC's Leonardo, played by actor Colin Ryan. However, thehistorical accuracy of the series is questionable.[22]

Lorenzo de' Medici appears as a character in Assassin's Creed II.Lorenzo de' Medici is portrayed by Elliot Cowan in the 2013 TV series Da Vinci's Demons.

References

^ Kent, F.W. (2006). Lorenzo De' Medici and theArt of Magnificence. USA: JHU Press. p. 248.ISBN 0-8018-8627-9.

1.

^ Gene Brucker, Living on the Edge inLeonardo's Florence, (Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 2005), pp. 14-15.

2.

^ a b Hugh Ross Williamson, Lorenzo theMagnificent, Michael Joseph, (1974), ISBN07181 12040

3.

^ Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 674. ^ Christopher Hibbert, chapter 95. ^ Niccolò Machiavelli, History of Florence, BookVIII, Chpt. 7.

6.

^ Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 707. ^ Walter, Ingeborg (2013). "Lorenzo derPrächtige: Mäzen, Schöngeist und Tyrann"[Lorenzo the Magnificent: Patron, Aesthete andTyrant]. Damals (in German) 45 (3): 32.

8.

^ a b c Reinhardt, Volker (2013). "Die langsameAushöhlung der Republik" [The slow and steadyErosion of the Republic]. Damals (in German) 45(3): 16–23.

9.

^ Guicciardini, Francesco (1964). History of Italyand History of Florence. New York: TwaynePublishers. p. 8.

10.


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^ a b c Thompson, Bard (1996). Humanists andReformers: A History of the Renaissance andReformation (http://books.google.com/books?id=Hrq9d567398C&pg=PA189&dq=Francesco+Salviati+archbishop&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XiQhUZ3tMtDQsga95ICYBA&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Francesco%20Salviati%20archbishop&f=false). William B. Eerdmans PublishingCompany. pp. 189 ff. ISBN 0-8028-6348-5.

11.

^ Hancock, Lee (2005). Lorenzo de' Medici:Florence's Great Leader and Patron of the Arts.The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. p. 57.ISBN 1-4042-0315-X.

12.

^ Martines, Lauro (2000). April Blood: Florenceand the Plot Against the Medici. OxfordUniversity Press.

13.

^ Inalcik, Halil (2000). The Ottoman Empire: TheClassical Age 1300-1600. London: OrionPublishing Group. p. 135.ISBN 978-1-84212-442-0.

14.

^ La Poesie di (https://archive.org/details/La.Poesia.di.Lorenzo.dei.MediciLydiaUgolini.1985) Lorenzo di Medici | The Poetry of Lorenzo diMedici- Lydia Ugolini; Lecture (1985); Audio

15.

^ a b Schmidt, Eike D. (2013). "Mäzene auf denSpuren der Antike" [Patrons in the footsteps ofAntiquity]. Damals (in German) 45 (3): 36–43.

16.

^ Brucker, G., ed. (1971). The Society ofRenaissance Florence: A Documentary Study.New York: Harper & Row. p. 27.

17.

^ Donald Weinstein, Savonarola the Rise andFall of a Renaissance Prophet (New Haven,2011) Chap 5: The Magnificent Lorenzo

18.

^ Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 268.19. ^ Williamson, pp. 268-920. ^ a b c Hugh Ross Williamson, p. 270-8021. ^ Leonardo on IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745588/)Leonardo on IMDB

22.

Further reading

Miles J. Unger, Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de' Medici (Simon andSchuster 2008) is a vividly colorful new biography of this true "renaissance man", the uncrownedruler of Florence during its golden age.Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (Morrow-Quill, 1980) is a highlyreadable, non-scholarly general history of the family, and covers Lorenzo's life in some detail.F. W. Kent, Lorenzo de- Medici and the Art of Magnificence (The Johns Hopkins Symposia inComparative History (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004) A summary of 40 years ofresearch with a specific theme of Il Magnifico's relationship with the visual arts.Peter Barenboim, Michelangelo Drawings - Key to the Medici Chapel Interpretation ( Moscow,Letny Sad, 2006) ISBN 5-98856-016-4, is a new interpretation of Lorenzo the Magnificent' imagein the Medici Chapel.Williamson, Hugh Ross, Lorenzo the Magnificent. Michael Joseph, London. (1974) ISBN0-7181-1204-0


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Wikimedia Commons hasmedia related to Lorenzo ilMagnifico.

Historical novels

Robin Maxwell, Signora da Vinci (NAL Trade, 2009), a novel that follows Leonardo da Vinci'smother, Caterina, as she travels to Florence to be with her son.

External links

Texts of Lorenzo de' Medici(http://ilmagnifico.letteraturaoperaomnia.org/index.html)Lorenzo de' Medici as patron(http://www.themedicifamily.com/Lorenzo-de-Medici.html)"Info Please | Lorenzo De' Medici" (http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0832477.html)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lorenzo_de%27_Medici&oldid=649031700"

Categories: 1449 births 1492 deaths 15th-century Italian people House of MediciItalian Renaissance humanists Patrons of literature People from Florence Rulers of FlorenceBurials at the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence

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Lorenzo de' Medici - Weeblywildehistory.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/7/0/16706304/lorenzo_de'_medici_-_wikipedia,_the...Lorenzo de' Medici From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lorenzo de