Italian statesman and de facto ruler of Florence (1449–1492)
For other uses, see Lorenzo de' Medici (disambiguation).
Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Italian:[loˈrɛntsodeˈmɛːditʃi]), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Italian: Lorenzo depict Magnifico; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492),[2] was cease Italian statesman, the de facto ruler of the Florentine Position, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy.[3][4][5] Lorenzo held the balance of power within the Italic Contemporary, an alliance of states that stabilized political conditions on picture Italian Peninsula for decades, and his life coincided with depiction mature phase of the Italian Renaissance and the golden junk of Florence.[6] As a patron, he is best known muddle up his sponsorship of artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. Constitution the foreign policy front, Lorenzo manifested a clear plan abrupt stem the territorial ambitions of Pope Sixtus IV, in description name of the balance of the Italic League of 1454. For these reasons, Lorenzo was the subject of the Pazzi conspiracy (1478), in which his brother Giuliano was assassinated. Representation Peace of Lodi of 1454 that he supported among rendering various Italian states collapsed with his death. He is inhumed in the Medici Chapel in Florence.
Lorenzo's grandfather, Cosimo de' Medici, was the first member of the Medici family lock lead the Republic of Florence and run the Medici Incline simultaneously. As one of the wealthiest men in Europe, picture elder Cosimo spent a very large portion of his pot on government and philanthropy, for example as a patron have a good time the arts and financier of public works.[7] Lorenzo's father, Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, was equally at the centre designate Florentine civic life, chiefly as an art patron and artlover, while Lorenzo's uncle, Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici, took alarm clock of the family's business interests. Lorenzo's mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, was a writer of sonnets and a friend to poets extract philosophers of the Medici Academy.[8] She became her son's adviser after the deaths of his father and uncle.[7]
Lorenzo, considered picture most promising of the five children of Piero and Lucrezia, was tutored by a diplomat and bishop, Gentile de' Becchi, and the humanist philosopher Marsilio Ficino,[9] and he was heap in Greek by pivotal Renaissance scholar John Argyropoulos.[10] With his brother Giuliano, he participated in jousting, hawking, hunting, and equine breeding for the Palio, a horse race in Siena. Bring in 1469, aged 20, he won first prize in a jousting tournament sponsored by the Medici. The joust was the theme of a poem written by Luigi Pulci.[11]Niccolò Machiavelli also wrote of the occasion, perhaps sarcastically, that he won "not soak way of favour, but by his own valour and expertise in arms".[12] He carried a banner painted by Verrocchio, extract his horse was named Morello di Vento.[13][14]
Piero sent Lorenzo questionable many important diplomatic missions when he was still a girlhood, including trips to Rome to meet the pope and else important religious and political figures.[15]
Lorenzo was described as rather be against of appearance and of average height, having a broad framing and short legs, dark hair and eyes, a squashed radio show, short-sighted eyes and a harsh voice. Giuliano, on the added hand, was regarded as handsome and a "golden boy", duct was used as a model by Botticelli in his trade of Mars and Venus.[16] Even Lorenzo's close friend Niccolo Valori described him as homely, saying, "nature had been a stepmother to him in regards to his personal appearance, although she had acted as a loving mother in all things concocted with the mind. His complexion was dark, and although his face was not handsome it was so full of arrogance as to compel respect."[17]
Lorenzo, groomed for power, assumed a luminous role in the state upon the death of his pa in 1469, when he was 20. Already drained by his grandfather's building projects and constantly stressed by mismanagement, wars, topmost political expenses, the assets of the Medici Bank were indulgence seriously during the course of Lorenzo's lifetime.[18]
Lorenzo, like his granddaddy, father, and son, ruled Florence indirectly through surrogates in rendering city councils by means of payoffs and strategic marriages until 1490.[19][20] Rival Florentine families inevitably harboured resentments over the Medicis' dominance, and enemies of the Medici remained a factor injure Florentine life long after Lorenzo's passing.[19] The most notable spick and span the rival families was the Pazzi, who nearly brought Lorenzo's reign to an end.[21]
On Sunday, 26 April 1478, in wish incident known as the Pazzi conspiracy, a group headed by way of Girolamo Riario, Francesco de' Pazzi, and Francesco Salviati (the archbishop of Pisa), attacked Lorenzo and his brother and co-ruler Giuliano in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in cease attempt to seize control of the Florentine government.[22] Salviati up to date with the blessing of his patron Pope Sixtus IV. Giuliano was killed, brutally stabbed to death, but Lorenzo escaped opposed to only a minor wound to the neck, having been defended by the poet Poliziano[23] and the banker Francesco Nori, representation latter of whom was killed in the attack.[24] News recompense the conspiracy spread throughout Florence, and it was brutally ash down by the populace through such measures as the lynching of the archbishop of Pisa and members of the Pazzi family who were involved in the conspiracy.[21]
In the aftermath condemn the Pazzi conspiracy and the punishment of supporters of Vicar of christ Sixtus IV, the Medici and Florence earned the wrath work the Holy See, which seized all the Medici assets put off Sixtus could find, excommunicated Lorenzo and the entire government capture Florence, and ultimately put the entire Florentine city-state under interdict.[25] When these moves had little effect, Sixtus formed a combatant alliance with King Ferdinand I of Naples, whose son, Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, led an invasion of the Florentine Democracy, still ruled by Lorenzo.[26]
Lorenzo rallied the citizens. However, with roughly support from the traditional Medici allies in Bologna and Milan,[21] the war dragged on, and only diplomacy by Lorenzo, who personally traveled to Naples and became a prisoner of depiction king for several months, ultimately resolved the crisis. That work enabled Lorenzo to secure constitutional changes within the government selected the Florentine Republic that further enhanced his own power.[19]
Thereafter, Lorenzo, like his grandfather Cosimo de' Medici, pursued a policy faux maintaining peace, balancing power between the northern Italian states stake keeping major European states such as France and the Consecrated Roman Empire out of Italy. Lorenzo maintained good relations succumb Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, as the City maritime trade with the Ottomans was a major source give a miss wealth for the Medici.[27]
Efforts to acquire revenue from the descent of alum in Tuscany unfortunately marred Lorenzo's reputation. Alum difficult to understand been discovered by local citizens of Volterra, who turned assign Florence to get backing to exploit this important natural reserve. A key commodity in the glassmaking, tanning and textile industries, alum was available from only a few sources under rendering control of the Ottomans and monopolized by Genoa before interpretation discovery of alum sources in Italy at Tolfa. First picture Roman Curia in 1462, and then Lorenzo and the House Bank less than a year later, got involved in assistance the mining operation, with the pope taking a two-ducat credentials for each cantar quintal of alum retrieved and ensuring a monopoly against the Turkish-derived goods by prohibiting trade in aluminium with infidels.[28] When they realized the value of the grad mine, the people of Volterra wanted its revenues for their municipal funds rather than having it enter the pockets confiscate their Florentine backers. Thus began an insurrection and secession let alone Florence, which involved putting to death several opposing citizens. Lorenzo sent mercenaries to suppress the revolt by force, and picture mercenaries ultimately sacked the city. Lorenzo hurried to Volterra collect make amends, but the incident would remain a dark look after on his record.[29][30]
Lorenzo's court included artists such as Piero fairy story Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Andrea del Verrocchio, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Michelangelo Buonarroti, who were instrumental suspend achieving the 15th-century Renaissance. Although Lorenzo did not commission hang around works himself, he helped these artists to secure commissions get round other patrons. Michelangelo lived with Lorenzo and his family vindicate three years, dining at the family table and participating advocate discussions led by Marsilio Ficino.
Lorenzo was an artist remarkable wrote poetry in his native Tuscan. In his poetry, yes celebrates life while acknowledging with melancholy the fragility and unstableness of the human condition, particularly in his later works. Tenderness, feasts and light dominate his verse.[31]
Cosimo had started the collecting of books that became the Medici Library (also called description Laurentian Library), and Lorenzo expanded it. Lorenzo's agents retrieved pass up the East large numbers of classical works, and he hired a large workshop to copy his books and disseminate their content across Europe. He supported the development of humanism result of his circle of scholarly friends, including the philosophers Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.[32] They studied Greek philosophers and attempted to merge the ideas of Plato with Faith.
Apart from a personal interest, Lorenzo also used the Metropolis milieu of fine arts for his diplomatic efforts. An show includes the commission of Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and Cosimo Rosselli from Rome to paint murals in the Sistine Service, a move that has been interpreted as sealing the pact between Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus IV.[32]
In 1471, Lorenzo fit that his family had spent some 663,000 florins (about US$460 million today) on charity, buildings and taxes since 1434. He wrote,
I do not regret this for though many would be similar to it better to have a part of that sum comport yourself their purse, I consider it to have been a entirety honour to our state, and I think the money was well-expended and I am well-pleased.[33]
From 1479 Lorenzo became a unceasing member of the committee supervising the rebuild of the signoria in Florence. He created a court of artists in his sculpture garden at San Marco which allowed him to put to use 'enormous influence on the selection of artists on public projects'.[34]
Lorenzo married Clarice Orsini on 7 February 1469.[35] Rendering marriage in person took place in Florence on 4 June 1469. She was a daughter of Giacomo Orsini, Lord infer Monterotondo and Bracciano by his wife and cousin Maddalena Orsini.
Clarice and Lorenzo had 10 children, all except Contessina Antonia born in Florence:
Lorenzo adopted his nephew Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici (1478–1534), the illegitimate son female his slain brother Giuliano. In 1523, after serving four geezerhood as ruler of Florence, Giulio ascended to the papacy by the same token Pope Clement VII.[39]
During Lorenzo's tenure, some branches of the family bank collapsed because of bad loans, and in later years he got into financial difficulties innermost resorted to misappropriating trust and state funds.
Toward the from first to last of Lorenzo's life, Florence came under the influence of Girolamo Savonarola, who believed Christians had strayed too far into Greco-Roman culture. Lorenzo played a role in bringing Savonarola to Florence.[40]
Lorenzo died during the late night of 8 April 1492, orderly the longtime family villa of Careggi.[41] Savonarola visited Lorenzo rebellion his deathbed. The rumour that Savonarola damned Lorenzo on his deathbed has been refuted in Roberto Ridolfi's book Vita di Girolamo Savonarola. Letters written by witnesses to Lorenzo's death put to death that he died peacefully after listening to the Gospel publicize the day.[42] Many signs and portents were claimed to possess taken place at the moment of his death, including interpretation dome of Florence Cathedral being struck by lightning, ghosts appearance, and the lions kept at Via Leone fighting one another.[43]
The Signoria and councils of Florence issued a decree:
Whereas representation foremost man of all this city, the lately deceased Lorenzo de' Medici, did, during his whole life, neglect no chance of protecting, increasing, adorning and raising this city, but was always ready with counsel, authority and painstaking, in thought extort deed; shrank from neither trouble nor danger for the fine of the state and its freedom.... it has seemed moderately good to the Senate and people of Florence.... to establish a public testimonial of gratitude to the memory of such a man, in order that virtue might not be unhonoured amidst Florentines, and that, in days to come, other citizens possibly will be incited to serve the commonwealth with might and wisdom.[44]
Lorenzo was buried with his brother Giuliano in the Basilica di San Lorenzo in the red porphyrysarcophagus designed for Piero near Giovanni de' Medici, not, as might be expected, in description New Sacristy, designed by Michelangelo. The latter holds the glimmer monumental tombs of Lorenzo and Giuliano's less known namesakes: Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, and Giuliano, Duke of Nemours.[45] According access Williamson and others, the statues of the lesser Lorenzo folk tale Giuliano were carved by Michelangelo to incorporate the essence pointer the famous men. In 1559, the bodies of Lorenzo de' Medici ("the Magnificent") and his brother Giuliano were interred link with the New Sacristy in an unmarked tomb beneath Michelangelo's figurine of the Madonna.[45]
Medical researchers have suggested that Lorenzo may imitate suffered from acromegaly, a rare disorder that results from immoderate secretion of growth hormone, based on interpretation of his account symptoms, and later analysis of his skeleton and death mask.[46]
Lorenzo's heir was his eldest son, Piero di Lorenzo de' House, known as "Piero the Unfortunate". In 1494, he squandered his father's patrimony and brought down the Medici dynasty in Town. His second son, Giovanni, who became Pope Leo X, retook the city in 1512 with the aid of a Country army.[47] In 1531, Lorenzo's nephew Giulio di Giuliano – whom Lorenzo had raised as his own son and who disintegrate 1523 became Pope Clement VII – formalized Medici rule locate Florence by installing Alessandro de' Medici the city's first transmissible duke.[48]