Lorenzo de' Medici

From January 1449 until April 9th 1492, a man whose lasting power in art can still be felt today lived. This man was called Lorenzo de’ Medici, and even though he did not produce directly any world famous works of art, he sparked and heavily influenced a revolution of the arts that had as an epicenter (at least at the beginning) his home city, Florence, Italy.

The Renaissance is one of the most important periods in human history. Man got out of the squandering of the Middle Ages and concentrated again on the improvement of society and the individual in all aspects. Italy is where the Renaissance (or Rinascimento) begun. In many ways, this new appreciation for the arts, math, culture, and science, was triggered by the wealth and prosperity of city states and especially of politically and socially powerful families. One such family is the Medici.

By 1434, Cosimo de’ Medici had established his family as the rulers (in practice, not by decree) of Florence. This great patron of the church and arts died in 1464 and was replaced as leader of Florence by his son Piero I de’ Medici immediately. Piero did not rule for long. He died in 1469 and his son Lorenzo took the leadership of Florence and his family in December 1469.

Throughout Lorenzo de’ Medici’s rule, art and culture flourished. His grandfather, Cosimo, was a wealthy banker that had found in the patronage of art a way to redeem himself for some things he thought could have prevented him to get in heaven.  It was this way that Cosimo left a strong example of patronage of the arts. Lorenzo followed in some ways his grandfather’s steps, but it is believed he supported the arts more for personal and political reasons and not so much for regret.

Lorenzo was not only fit to rule but he was also a scholar, a poet, and an artist. Il Magnifico (the Magnificent) as he was also known was very attracted to classical antiquity. Lorenzo was also an important humanist.

During Lorenzo’s rule, Florence experienced a period of relative stability and peace. There was a major incident worth noting in 1478, the Pazzi conspiracy; an incident in which the Pazzi family tried to seize control of Florence by killing both Lorenzo and his brother Guiliano. The latter died due to this episode but Lorenzo survived even though the conspirators stabbed him. After this incident, Lorenzo showed no mercy and violently executed the traitors. He then had to deal with the excommunication of his people and a small scale war against Sixtus IV and Ferdinand I of Naples. He is recognized as a brilliant diplomat for several feats but especially the handling of the negotiations during this war that ended in peace after relatively little time.
The most important aspect of Lorenzo the Magnificent is his relationship with the arts. He was born incredibly rich and had the best classical education money could buy, but as opposed to his grandfather Cosimo, Lorenzo used his riches mostly to search for pleasure and to patron and collect art, not for banking.

The modern art school was born in Lorenzo’s garden. He had a vision for Florence where art played a center role; he put forward different initiatives to improve the quality and quantity of art in his city. One of them is, he hired a tutor and made works available from the Medici’s family collection so students could use them as examples and inspiration. The arts truly went through a golden age in Lorenzo’s Florence.

In the 15th century, much of the art had religious themes. The Catholic Church would commission a great deal of paintings, sculptures, etc. Lorenzo had pagan views and did not believe art had to always relate to religion. He influenced a new generation of artist to be liberated to great extents on the topics and styles they used. He got people thinking of new ideas and approaches and made art evolve and expand.

The most notable student to have studied at the academy Lorenzo created was Michelangelo Buonarroti. We can actually see the impact of Lorenzo’s taste an ideas on Michelangelo if we examine his two earliest known works. The first one is called “Madonna of the stairs” completed in 1491 which features a religious theme. The second one is the “Battle of the Centaurs” made in 1492 which is classical and non-religious. As Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals in BBC’s The Medici – Makers of Modern Art, Michelangelo’s “Battle of the Centaurs” is the birth of western-European secular art.

Lorenzo’s rule ended at his death the same year “Battle of the Centaurs” was completed, 1492, leaving the city-state and his family dynasty leadership role to his son Piero II de’ Medici who proved incapable of maintaining the power he inherited. It is important to note that the Medici’s fortune went down considerably at the end of Lorenzo’s life. Some branches of the Medici Bank collapsed because of bad loans. With Lorenzo’s death, the center of the Italian Renaissance moved from Florence to Rome.

When Lorenzo the Magnificent died, he probably knew he had changed the world of art in a big way. I believe he changed it for the better. Without him, we might have seen different artists in the people we know as Michelangelo Buonarroti, Sandro Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci himself. All artists continuously influenced each other during the renaissance and thankfully Lorenzo enriched the imagination and the talent of many of them while providing the much needed economical support.