Lorenzo de' Medici facts for kids

Lorenzo by Verrocchio

Lorenzo de' Medici (1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492) was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. He was called Lorenzo the Magnificent (Lorenzo il Magnifico) by Florentines. He was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists, and poets. He is probably best known for what he gave to the world of art. He gave large amounts of money to artists so that they could make very good artwork. When he died, the Golden Age of Florence ended. The peace he helped keep between the many Italian states collapsed when he died. Lorenzo de' Medici is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence.

Renaissance

Lorenzo was an artist. He wrote poetry in Tuscan.

Lorenzo's agents took a lot of classical works from the east. Lorenzo had a large workshop to copy his books and spread their content across Europe. He supported the development of humanism through his friends who studied Greek philosophers, and tried to merge the ideas of Plato with Christianity. In this group were the philosophers Marsilio Ficino, Poliziano and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.

Related pages

• Medici

Rappresentazione dei santi Giovanni e Paolo

• Miles J. Unger, Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de Medici (Simon and Schuster 2008), biography of Lorenzo.
• Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall (Morrow-Quill, 1980); general history of the family.
• F. W. Kent, Lorenzo de- Medici and the Art of Magnificence (The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004); summarises Lorenzo's relationship with the arts.
• Peter Barenboim, Michelangelo Drawings - Key to the Medici Chapel Interpretation ( Moscow, Letny Sad, 2006) ISBN: 5-98856-016-4.

Images for kids

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  The Angel appearing to Zacharias in the Tornabuoni Chapel in Florence contains portraits of members of the Medici Academy: Marsilio Ficino, Cristoforo Landino, Agnolo Poliziano and either Demetrios Chalkokondyles or Gentile de' Becchi.

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  Lorenzo by Pieter Paul Rubens (1612–1616), Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp

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  Detail of Domenico Ghirlandaio's Confirmation of the Franciscan Rule from the Sassetti Chapel frescos. Mounting the stairs in the forefront are the tutor of Lorenzo's sons, Angelo Poliziano, and Lorenzo's sons Giuliano, Piero and Giovanni, followed by two members of the Humanist Academy.

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  A posthumous portrait of Lorenzo by Giorgio Vasari (16th century)