Medici

Medici Italian family of bankers and merchants that ruled Florence and later Tuscany for most of the period from 1434 to 1737 and was famous for its patronage of learning and the arts throughout the Renaissance. Unlike most of the great Italian ruling dynasties, the Medici were not primarily military men, gaining their power through wealth and political astuteness rather than force. Their influence extended beyond the city and the region, for the family produced four popes and two queens of France.

The Medici name appears in Florentine records as early as the 12th century, but the real founder of the family fortune was Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (1360–1429), who became one of the leading bankers in Italy and in 1421 was appointed gonfalonier (head of Florence's governing council). He also began the family tradition of art patronage, notably by commissioning Brunelleschi to build the Old Sacristy of the church of S. Lorenzo in 1419. His son Cosimo (1389–1464) was effectively ruler of Florence from 1434, although in theory he was an ordinary citizen of the republic. His major artistic undertaking was the building of the family palace (now known as the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi), designed by Michelozzo and begun in 1445. The other artists he employed included Donatello and Uccello, and he was an important collector of manuscripts, founding what is now the Laurentian Library in Florence. His son Piero (1416–69), known as Piero the Gouty, is best remembered in artistic terms for commissioning Benozzo Gozzoli's celebrated frescos in the family palace. Piero's son and successor, Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449–92), was the most famous member of the family. A poet and scholar, he had a great interest in the classical world and made a fine collection of antiquities, including sculpture, gems, and cameos. He also patronized some of the best contemporary artists, including the young Michelangelo, who was treated almost like an adopted son (he lived in the Medici Palace for a time and had access to Lorenzo's sculpture garden, which served as a kind of informal art academy). Lorenzo's most important architectural commission was the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano, near Florence, designed by Giuliano da Sangallo and built in the 1480s. For another villa, near Volterra, he commissioned paintings from Botticelli and other artists. This building has been destroyed, but Botticelli produced other work for the Medici; his Primavera and Birth of Venus were certainly owned by the family and were perhaps painted for Lorenzo's second cousin, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco (1463–1503). Lorenzo the Magnificent was succeeded by his son Piero (1471–1503), who was exiled from Florence in 1494 after being forced to make humiliating concessions to Charles VIII of France, who had invaded Italy. The Medici were absent from Florence until 1512, when Piero's brother Giuliano (1479–1516) returned and assumed power. From 1527 to 1530 the family was again expelled, then Alessandro (1511–37), an illegitimate descendant of Lorenzo the Magnificent, regained control and assumed the title of duke of Florence. A despotic ruler, he was assassinated in 1537 and succeeded by a distant cousin Cosimo (1519–74), who restored stability to the city. In 1557 Cosimo gained control of Siena and most of its dependent territories, giving him dominion over much of the region, and in 1569 Pope Pius V awarded him the hereditary title of Grand Duke of Tuscany. Unlike some other Medici rulers, Cosimo was not a connoisseur, but he appreciated the propaganda value of art and he spent lavishly on glorifying himself and his family and on embellishing Florence. Bronzino was his favourite artist, and the others he employed included Ammanati, Cellini, Giambologna, Pontormo, and Vasari, who designed the Uffizi, originally used as offices but soon adapted to include gallery space for the family art collections. Its great collection of artist's self-portraits was founded by Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici (1617–75), who in this way made perhaps the most distinctive contribution to the arts of any of the later members of the family. Cosimo's descendants ruled until 1737, when the last Medici Grand Duke, Gian Gastone, died without a male heir and was succeeded by a distant relative, Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine. At this point Gian Gastone's sister, Anna Maria Luisa (1667–1743), presented the family collections to the city of Florence.

The four Medici popes were Leo X (reigned 1513–21), Clement VII (1523–34), Pius IV (1559–65), and Leo XI (1605); the first two were notable art patrons. Leo X (born Giovanni de' Medici in 1475) was the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent. As pope he continued his predecessor Julius II's projects in the rebuilding of St Peter's and the decoration of the Vatican Stanze (see Raphael). His extravagant spending (on war and personal pleasures as well as art) left the papal treasury in heavy debt. Clement VII (born Giulio de' Medici in 1478) was a nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent. The artists he patronized included Cellini, Michelangelo, and Sebastiano del Piombo. The two Medici queens of France were Catherine de' Medici (1519–89), known in France as Catherine de Médicis, and Maria de' Medici (1573–1642), known in France as Marie de Médicis. Catherine was the wife of Henry II and after his death in 1559 she was regent or adviser to three of their sons who became king in turn: Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III. The artists she patronized included Niccolò dell' Abate, Germain Pilon, and Francesco Primaticcio. Maria was the second wife of Henry IV and after his death in 1610 she became regent for their son Louis XIII. Rubens painted a great cycle of paintings glorifying her life (1622–5, Louvre, Paris). The image it presents of her is far from the truth, for she was politically inept and ended her life in exile.