The Medici family was a powerful and influential dynasty in Renaissance Italy. Their business dominated the wool trade and they were major patrons of Renaissance artistic culture.
Cosimo de’ Medici rose to become duke of Florence and grand duke of Tuscany. He was a shrewd politician that promoted his interests with the help of supporters.
Cosimo I
Medici bankers made the family famous, but the dynasty also developed as patrons of the arts. Beginning in 1434, when Cosimo de' Medici the Elder consolidated their wealth and power, the family expanded its cultural influence, turning Florence into the cradle of the Renaissance. Cosimo was an aristocrat with an adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit. He and his family used their wealth to promote art, culture and religion throughout Europe.
He founded one of the greatest museums in the world, the Uffizi in Florence, and sponsored important artists, such as Fra Angelico and Donatello. He was also a patron of the sciences, and supported scholars like Marsilio Ficino, who revived Plato's Academy in his villa at Careggi. He had a particular interest in archaeology and commissioned works by artists such as Agnolo Bronzino, Benvenuto Cellini and Piero della Francesca.
Cosimo's lavish spending helped to create the Medici monopoly of power in the fifteenth century and to ensure that his descendants would remain supreme rulers of Tuscany into the 1700s. This exhibition looks closely at the body of works commissioned by Cosimo and his sons as well as at recurring themes that emerge from this extraordinary collection.
From his earliest portraits—like the one by Niccol di Bartolomeo—Cosimo tried to present himself as a sovereign figure, a ruler who had an empire to rule. Several of his sons adopted this image in their own portraiture. In their depictions of Cosimo, they emphasize his power and his wealth, but also his personal virtues and even his virility.
Throughout his lifetime, Cosimo sought to establish a princely identity for the Medici family by establishing links with the lay confraternity of the Compagnia dei Magi. This association gave a royal imprimatur to the family's social activities and political intrigues, as well as its military campaigns. Cosimo's image was further strengthened by his support for archaeological excavations and the revival of antiquity, with the emphasis on learning that had already gained currency in Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century.
In addition, Cosimo promoted a sense of belonging for his own family by sponsoring cultural events and by erecting monuments in the name of his children. At his death, he was accorded the title of Pater Patriae, Father of his Country, following an antique formula. In his final years Cosimo lived at his palace in Careggi. He would often be seen wandering its corridors, sighing that it was "too big a house for such a small family." He died there in 1464. A huge crowd accompanied his body to S. Lorenzo.
Lorenzo the Magnificent
Lorenzo, referred to as “Il Magnifico” by his peers, was the head of the powerful Medici family that ran Florence and Tuscany in the 15th century. He was not only a politician but also an enthusiastic patron of the Renaissance arts, a collector of fine art and poetry, and a passionate supporter of geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. His flamboyance and sense of style earned him the nickname “Il Magnifico.”
As Lorenzo prepared to meet his friends for a feast he was surprised when his fiancé Clarice Orsini walked in. She is visibly upset that he is planning to marry Guglielmo, but Lorenzo reminds her that duty comes before passion and that he needs Soderini’s votes in the upcoming treaty negotiations with Milan.
Lorenzo is a man of many talents, and his passion for the arts and for life were unsurpassed by any in his generation. Unlike his father, Cosimo, who had been a ruthless leader, Lorenzo was a man of peace who sought to promote humanism and the arts. He was a devout Christian, and he founded the Medici Library in 1442.
In addition to his political and artistic pursuits, Lorenzo was also a successful businessman and an accomplished diplomat. In fact, the Medici family was one of the most influential in Europe at this time, and some members of the family even became popes (Leo X and Clement VII).
One of Lorenzo’s great achievements was his marriage to the beautiful and intelligent Clarici Orsini. She brought a new dynamic to the family and helped him balance his love of the arts with his need to govern the state.
Although Lorenzo tried to circumvent the usual structures of government by appointing emergency committees and pre-selecting election candidates, this was not enough to keep up with the opposition that developed from rival oligarchs and the lower classes. By the end of his life, he had lost much of his prestige, and the Medici bank was beginning to decline. Ultimately, the power of the family would pass to his son Piero, who inherited the title of Duke of Florence and the riches of the Medici Bank. He was not as brilliant, wise, and ruthless as his father, and he quickly came to be viewed as the embodiment of the old corrupt Medici way of doing business. This would lead to the events that are known as the Pazzi Conspiracy.
Piero II
Piero de’ Medici (1416-1469), the oldest son of Cosimo the Elder, was head of the family for only five years before his death from gout and lung disease. He was not a great ruler, and earned his unflattering soubriquet “the Gouty” on account of his poor judgment in military and political matters.
During his reign the Medici Bank expanded rapidly. It was at this time that they developed a complex system of financial record keeping. This allowed them to expand their trading network into Europe, transforming the business of banking and finance as we know it today.
The Medici also became very wealthy by investing in artistic patronage. They commissioned works by such artists as Donatello, Andrea del Verrocchio and Sandro Botticelli. They financed the Platonic Academy and were generous patrons of religious art. The Medici were also important supporters of science, bringing Galileo to Florence and funding scientific experiments that would later revolutionize the study of the universe.
When the first assassination attempt on Lorenzo de’ Medici failed, the young Duke turned to his older brother Piero for help. Although he refused to carry out the second assassination attempt, he blocked Lorenzo’s protests and called off the plot. This restored his status in the eyes of his father and helped him to regain the leadership of the Medici Bank.
Piero’s first bad decision was to ally with Naples rather than Milan, thus ending the long-standing peace between the two Italian states that his father had worked so hard to achieve. In this case, he was caught off guard by the rebellious spirit of reformist priest Girolamo Savonarola.
Another problem was that he favored his younger son Giuliano over his daughter, Clarice. This led to jealousy and distrust among the other members of the family and, at times, he even attempted to kill his own son!
Despite his flaws, Piero was an intelligent man with a good sense of humor. During Series 2 of The Borgias, he attempts to trick the city into waging war on Milan by poisoning Rocco, who is now the old Duke. His plan backfires, however, when his friends Leonardo and Giuliano discover the plot.
Piero was a shrewd and unpredictable villain, and it is exciting to see his character develop throughout the series. He often uses his dark side to further his own personal ambitions, but he is not without a sense of humor and intelligence. Watch the series to find out how he and his family will evolve! The Borgias airs on HBO Sunday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT. To stay up to date on all things Borgias, follow the show on Facebook and Twitter! You can also download the free app for iOS and Android devices. The app has exclusive content, including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew.
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