Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici, by Georgio Vasari

The education of Piero’s two sons was the best that times—or we might say any times—could afford. Their tutor was Gentile Becchi, famed for his exquisite Latin, and they learnt Greek from Argyropulos, and Platonic philosophy from Ficino. But perhaps their most important instructor was Cristoforo Landini, professor of poetry and rhetoric at the University, and afterwards promoted to the Chair of Greek and Latin. He was the translator of Aristotle, and wrote a commentary on Dante, in whose steps he followed by his encouragement of the vernacular, and in this he had a marked influence on Lorenzo de' Medici, though the latter always maintained that he owed his taste for poetry to his mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, herself an excelent poet, who also undertook the religious education of her children. She was a noble woman, always a power in the family, and Lorenzo’s best counselor until her death. The young Medici were no less proficient in horsemanship and all athletic exercises than in the Humanities, and there is no doubt that the amusements in which they delighted, and which they promoted, greatly enhanced their popularity. The famous tournaments which took place in 1468, and about which so much has been written, bear witness to this. Each brother carried off the prize, that awarded to Lorenzo being a silver helmet with a figure of Mars as the crest. The Giostra di Lorenzo was celebrated in a poem by Luca Pulci; and that of Giuliano in a far better, but unfinished, poem by Poliziano, which, however, is addressed to Lorenzo.

In the following year, another pageant took place on the occasion of the marriage of Lorenzo de' Medici with Clarice Orsini, and a few months later his father died. The event really made little difference in Lorenzo’s position, for he had been at the head of affairs for some time. On the second day after Piero’s death, the citizens presented a petition asking the two sons to assume the position occupied by their father and grandfather, and Lorenzo, with the dauntless courage of the very young, accepted the offer. It is probable that its danger made it but the more attractive. Henceforth, though nominally bankers, the brothers were virtually princes, and rulers of Florence.

They must have been a great contrast to each other, the younger being singularly handsome, with bright eyes and black curling hair, whereas Lorenzo, though tall and well-built, had a plain, sallow face, with a flat nose and weak eyes; moreover his movements were awkward and his voice thin and harsh. It is one of his best traits that he never felt any jealousy of Giuliano, but regarded him with immense affection and always working for his advantage. But, in 1478, the Pazzi conspiracy, designed to assassinate both brothers, but in which only the younger was killed, put an end to any possible rivalry and, like many unsuccessful plots, it only increased the popularity of those against whom it was initiated. Giuliano was buried with every demonstration of public grief, and Lorenzo de' Medici was more than ever master of the city. In the succeeding years, when the disastrous war with Naples was over, Florence seemed to have embarked upon a sea of prosperity. Guicciardini writes that the people enjoyed much peace and felicity provisions were abundant, business was thriving, festivities were perpetual; arts and crafts and all activities were encouraged, and learned men flourished in the conditions accorded to them. In no other city of Italy were such art and learning conditions, and Florence, happy within her walls, reached the summit of glory and fame. Yet he is forced to conclude that under Lorenzo the city did not enjoy liberty, but that "it would have been impossible to have had a better and more agreeable tyrant." The fashion of the time designated Lorenzo, and many another potentates the Magnifico but all the rest are forgotten, and he lives in history as the only bearer of the title.

The character of Lorenzo de' Medici is interesting and his attainments no less so. He has been called complex, but it has been point out that in fact he is quite the reverse of this, and that it is his versatility, his receptiveness and his naturalness that have produced that impression, because it is the way of most people to mistrust the obvious and to look for something subtle beneath simplicity: in a word, to be unable to believe that a man may be many-sided by nature and not by duplicity. Dowered with a brilliant intellect, witty, vivacious, with genuine poetic and musical gifts, and a fine taste in art, perhaps his most useful qualities were his quickness of apprehension and sureness of his judgment. He was not a statesman of the first order, but his swiftness and resourcefulness often saved him. He was a diplomat rather than a politician; business did not attract him, and his neglect of the commercial interests of his house was the cause of his worst crimes—the diverting of public money to his own use, and especially the robbery of the Monte delle Doti (the dowries of poor Florentine girls).

His lavish expenditure of course only increased his popularity, for nothing is more popular than the spending of money, and the perpetual round of pageants and festivities, together with Canti Carnascialeschi, licentious songs which he composed for masquerades and sang in company with other young nobles, sapped the public morality, but at the same time occupied and diverted the people. Alongside of these Canti we have his religious Laude and many poems instinct with a peculiar love and understanding of nature: it is hardly necessary to call in question the sincerity of any of these. The Florentines were no less gratified with the position Lorenzo had created for himself and incidentally for the city. He was a power in Europe, and ambassadors were sent to him from East and West.

Lorenzo de' Medici had made a mariage de convenance, and it is probable that his morals left much to be desired, yet there is a great deal that is attractive about his domestic life; there is evidence that he treated his wife with respect and consideration, and that a real affection grew up between them, while he was certainly a devoted father, delighting in the company of his children, playing with them, writing for them, and taking infinite pains in directing their education. Poliziano was chosen as the children’s tutor, and, though this did not work very happily with regard to their mother, who tried to interfere in their studies, Piero seems to have done justice to his instructor and they always remained attached to each other.

Lorenzo himself had been brought up on Platonic philosophy, and had long been a shining member of the Platonic Academy. Probably his happiest hours were those occupied in literary and other disputes with the flower of the intellect of his time. Among the older men, Landini and Ficino, who had been his teachers, remained his friends and great respected his judgment. Ficino would never accept any preferment and remained a poor man to the end of his life. Though a constant admirer of Lorenzo, he had the courage to administer blame and salutary advice. Besides their interest in learning and notably in philosophy, they had another bond in their love of music. Ficino’s recreation was to play on the lyre and the flute, and he was often called upon to come and play to his friend. Lorenzo had no fewer than five organs, and gave much encouragement to the organist, Squarcialupi, to the beauty of whose organ-playing Alberti also testified.

Of the younger set, Luigi Pulci and Matteo Franco, Poliziano and Pico de la Mirandola were his chosen associates. The first two were poets and humorists, of a temper peculiarly congenial to the cynical and ironical moods of the Magnifico: they were his constant associates. Pulci had been a friend of Lorenzo’s mother, and the Morgante Maggiore was written at her request, though not finished till after her death. Poliziano had come to Florence very young and very poor, and owed everything to Lorenzo, who took him into his household. He became the greatest scholar and the most finished product of the time.

Art could hardly have found a more liberal patron in Lorenzo than in his forbears, but he may have been a more enlightened one, having more of the artistic temperament, and being moreover a man who could impress others with his own ideas. The attention to landscape and the growth of fancy to be noticed in the Florentine art of the later years of the century have been attributed to him and doubtless much of the prevailing prosperity of the city was due to the ardor with which he encouraged new arts, such as engraving on copper and on stones and gems, carving, the revival of mosaic, and the inlaying of wood and metal.

He made vast additions to the Medici collection of antiques. One of his finest enterprises was the opening of his garden alongside San Marco as a kind of school for artists. Here he displayed all his treasures of ancient carvings, and statues, together with designs by the best masters, and welcomed every student of any promise, of whom, as all the world knows, Michelangelo was one. These all sat at his table in company, on a perfect equality with his other guests. Bertoldo, Donatello’s pupil, was the custodian of the school, and he and Verrocchio repaired, completed and preserved all the priceless collection. Lorenzo’s favourite artists among the galaxy that were then painting, were Benozzo Gozzoli, Ghirlandaio and, especially, Botticelli. As compared with Cosimo, whose buildings as he rightly said have remained, and have made the city what she is, that which Lorenzo originated was small, but he was rather the inspirer of artists than their patron. He had the gift of imposing his personality on others; they felt with his feeling, saw with his eyes, and his influence on the art of his time is more real, though more intangible, than that of his illustrious grandfather.

But in the world of letters his position was wholly different: here indeed he sat with his peers. For the Medici, and for Lorenzo de' Medici in particular, the things of the mind were not an ornament, still less an accessory; they were a necessity of life, something vital. Setting aside his literary achievements to be considered later, as a lover and leader of learning he holds an honorable place. Well equipped with Greek and Latin erudition, with a profound admiration for Dante and for Petrarca, and a firm belief in the future of the vernacular, he forwarded every private enterprise of intellectual value; he helped in the collecting of codices, in the encouragement of lectures, in the fostering of the University, and in the liberal help accorded to scholars. He needed such companionship as broadened the mind and sharpened the wits, and he always made it a companionship of equals; the wise, the witty, the frivolous, the artistic, the learned, each in turn contributed to him and he to them.

But it was in the circle of the Platonic Academy that he was most at home. He was steeped in Platonism; he had a strong vein of mysticism in his nature, which was too poetic to be satisfied with a material creed. He was neither sceptic nor materialist, and he had what many better man has not, the religious sense. Before he died, he received the last Sacraments with intense contrition and devotion. His chosen friends Pico and Poliziano attended him and those around him said that he died nobly, with all the patience, the reverence, the recognition of God which the best of holy men could show. It is an undoubted fact that on his death bed Lorenzo de' Medici sent for Savonarola, saying that he knew no honest friar save him. What took place between them is still a matter of dispute: the dramatic account is that the friar charged him to restore liberty to Florence, on which the Magnifico turned his face to the wall and died in despair.

But according to Poliziano, who is surely a trustworthy witness, on that April day in 1492, when the sun of Lorenzo de' Medici set, Fra Girolamo exhorted and blessed him, and, simply, departed.