Lorenzo de' Medici and the Art of Magnificence
In the past half century scholars have downplayed the significance of Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492), called "the Magnificent," as a patron of the arts. Less wealthy than his grandfather Cosimo, the argument goes, Lorenzo was far more interested in collecting ancient objects of art than in commissioning contemporary art or architecture. His earlier reputation as a patron was said to be largely a construct of humanist exaggeration and partisan deference.\ Although some recent studies have...
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Historian F. W. Kent offers a new look at Lorenzo de Medici's relationship to the arts, aesthetics, collecting, and building -- especially in the context of his role as the political boss (maestro della bottega) of republican Florence and a leading player in Renaissance Italian diplomacy. Paying careful attention to the events of Lorenzo's short but dramatic life, Kent creates a radically new chronology that reveals Lorenzo's activities as an art patron as being more extensive and creative than previously thought. Richly illustrated with photographs of Medici landmarks by Ralph Lieberman, Lorenzo de' Medici and the Art of Magnificence offers a masterful portrait of Lorenzo as a man whose achievements might have rivaled those of his grandfather Cosimo had he not died so young.
List of IllustrationsixAcknowledgmentsxi1Introduction: The Myth of Lorenzo12The Aesthetic Education of Lorenzo103The Temptation to Be Magnificent, 1468-148444Lorenzo and the Florentine Building Boom, 1485-1492795Lorenzo, "Fine Husbandman" and Villa Builder, 1483-1492112Notes153Index223
\ American Historical ReviewThis suggestive book... looks for its audience to art historians whom F. W. Kent feels might benefit from a historian's discussion of the fragmentary information surrounding Lorenzo's various activities. \ — Melissa Meriam Bullard\ \ \ \ \ \ Australian Book ReviewKent has brought the breadth and depth of knowledge furnished by his nigh on forty years' research in the archives and libraries of Florence, an extraordinarily sensitive ear for the voices of his fifteenth-century Florentines, a nuanced and subtle understanding of their society and its leading figure, and a Renaissance elegance of structure and writing.\ — Ros Pesman\ \ \ \ Renaissance QuarterlyExtremely valuable... Even though the book tackles a specific theme—Lorenzo the Magnificence's relationship with the visual arts—it also characterizes this key Renaissance figure in the broad political, cultural, and psychological terms available only to a scholar so deeply engaged with every aspect of Lorenzo's life.\ — Lorenzo Fabbri\ \ \ \ \ \ Burlington MagazineElegantly compresses long study, and will stand as a companion to the same author's forthcoming two-volume biography of Lorenzo.\ — Patricia Rubin\ \ \ \ \ \ Journal of Modern HistoryA book with much to offer all readers.\ — Susannah Baxendale\ \ \ \ \ \ Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance[Kent is] to be commended highly for penetration as well as precision in [his] scholarship.\ \ \ \ \ Common KnowledgeA remarkable biography of a remarkable man.\ — Wayne Andersen\ \ \
