Lorenzo de' Medici

(noun)

An Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, who was one of the most powerful and enthusiastic patrons of the Renaissance.

Related Terms

Examples of Lorenzo de' Medici in the following topics:

  • Art and Patronage

    • Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492) was the catalyst for an enormous amount of arts patronage, encouraging his countrymen to commission works from the leading artists of Florence, including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.
    • The House of Medici was an Italian banking family, political dynasty and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century.
    • Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, the first patron of the arts in the family, aided Masaccio and commissioned Brunelleschi for the reconstruction of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence in 1419.
    • Indeed, Lorenzo was an artist in his own right, and author of poetry and song; his support of the arts and letters is seen as a high point in Medici patronage.
    • Marie de' Medici, widow of Henry IV of France and mother of Louis XIII, is the subject of a commissioned cycle of paintings known as the Marie de' Medici cycle, painted for the Luxembourg Palace by court painter Peter Paul Rubens in 1622-23.

  • Renaissance Sculpture in Florence

    • Renaissance sculpture proper is often thought to begin with the famous competition for the doors of the Florence baptistery in 1403, from which the trial models submitted by the winner, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and the runner up, Filippo Brunelleschi, still survive.
    • His foremost sponsor in Florence was Cosimo de'Medici, the city's greatest patron of art.
    • Donatello created his bronze David for Cosimo's court in the Palazzo Medici.

  • Italian Politics

    • The House of Medici was an Italian banking family, political dynasty and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century.
    • The Medici were responsible for the majority of Florentine art during their reign.
    • The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system.
    • Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was the first of the Medici political dynasty and had tremendous political power in Florence.
    • Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici, the found of the House of Medici, by Jacopo Pontormo; the laurel branch (il Broncone) was a symbol used also by his heirs.

  • Introduction to the Renaissance

    • Various theories have been proposed to account for the origins and characteristics of the Renaissance, focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of Florence at the time; its political structure; the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici; and the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Fall of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
    • Some writers date the Renaissance quite precisely; one proposed starting point is 1401, when the rival geniuses Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi competed for the contract to build the bronze doors for the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral (Ghiberti won).
    • The word occurs in Jules Michelet's 1855 work, Histoire de France.
    • Based on the specifications in Vitruvius' De architectura (1st century BC), Leonardo tried to draw the perfectly proportioned man.

  • Humanism

    • The leading artists of this medium were Donatello, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Lorenzo Ghiberti.
    • Important patrons, such as Cosimo de Medici, emerged and contributed largely to the expanding artistic production of the time.

  • Private Patronage

    • Another example of a well-known patron of the arts is Catherine de Medici, who made a significant contribution to the French Renaissance through her widespread patronage .
    • A well-known patron of the arts is Catherine de Medici, who made a significant contribution to the French Renaissance through her widespread patronage.

  • Philip II and the Spanish Armada

    • Philip's third wife was Elisabeth of Valois, the eldest daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.
    • He engaged the Spanish architect, Juan Bautista de Toledo, to be his collaborator.
    • A distant view of the Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.
    • In 1984, UNESCO declared The Royal Seat of San Lorenzo of El Escorial a World Heritage Site.

  • Colossal Heads of the Olmec

    • The huge basalt rocks for the large works of sculpture were quarried at distant sites and transported to Olmec centers such as San Lorenzo and La Venta.
    • These massive basalt boulders were transported from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas Mountains of Veracruz.
    • Most colossal heads were sculpted from spherical boulders but two from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán were re-carved from massive stone thrones.

  • Rome and the Papal States

    • He was the first Pope to embellish the Roman court with scholars and artists, including Lorenzo Valla and Vespasiano da Bisticci.
    • Rome reached the highest point of splendor under Pope Julius II (1503–1513) and his successors Leo X and Clement VII, both members of the Medici family.

  • The Olmec

    • Here the Olmec constructed permanent city-temple complexes at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, and Laguna de los Cerros.
    • San Lorenzo remained the Olmec capital up until about 900 BCE, when the central city became La Venta, which remained functional until the demise of the Olmec around 400 BCE.
    • Trading helped the Olmec build their urban centers of San Lorenzo and La Venta.
    • The boulders were brought from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains of Veracruz.
    • Most colossal heads were sculpted from spherical boulders, but two from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán were re-carved from massive stone thrones.