Editing Lorenzo de' Medici (section)

==Patronage==
[[File:Angel Appearing to Zacharias (detail) - 1486-90.JPG|thumb|left|upright=1.25|''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]].]]
Lorenzo's court included artists such as [[Piero del Pollaiuolo|Piero]] and [[Antonio del Pollaiuolo]], [[Andrea del Verrocchio]], [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Sandro Botticelli]], [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]] and [[Michelangelo Buonarroti]], who were instrumental in achieving the 15th-century [[Renaissance]]. Although Lorenzo did not commission many works himself, he helped these artists to secure commissions from other patrons. Michelangelo lived with Lorenzo and his family for three years, dining at the family table and participating in discussions led by [[Marsilio Ficino]].

Lorenzo was an artist and wrote poetry in his native [[Tuscan dialect|Tuscan]]. In his poetry, he celebrates life while acknowledging with melancholy the fragility and instability of the human condition, particularly in his later works. Love, feasts and light dominate his verse.<ref>[[iarchive:La.Poesia.di.Lorenzo.dei.MediciLydiaUgolini.1985|La Poesia di Lorenzo di Medici]] | ''The Poetry of [[Lorenzo di Medici]]''- [[Lydia Ugolini]]; Lecture (1985); Audio</ref>

Cosimo had started the collection of books that became the Medici Library (also called the [[Laurentian Library]]), and Lorenzo expanded it. Lorenzo's agents retrieved from the East large numbers of classical works, and he employed a large [[workshop]] to copy his books and disseminate their content across Europe. He supported the development of [[humanism]] through his circle of scholarly friends, including the philosophers [[Marsilio Ficino]], [[Poliziano]] and [[Giovanni Pico della Mirandola]].<ref name=Schmidt>{{cite journal|title=Mäzene auf den Spuren der Antike |trans-title=Patrons in the footsteps of Antiquity |first=Eike D. |last=Schmidt |author-link=Eike Schmidt|language=de |journal=[[Damals]] |pages=36–43 |volume=45 |issue=3 |year=2013}}</ref> They studied [[Greeks|Greek]] philosophers and attempted to merge the ideas of [[Plato]] with Christianity.

Apart from a personal interest, Lorenzo also used the Florentine [[milieu]] of fine arts for his diplomatic efforts. An example includes the commission of Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, [[Pietro Perugino]] and [[Cosimo Rosselli]] from Rome to paint murals in the [[Sistine Chapel]], a move that has been interpreted as sealing the alliance between Lorenzo and Pope Sixtus IV.<ref name=Schmidt/>

In 1471, Lorenzo calculated that his family had spent some 663,000 florins (about US$460&nbsp;million today) on charity, buildings and taxes since 1434. He wrote, <blockquote>I do not regret this for though many would consider it better to have a part of that sum in their purse, I consider it to have been a great honour to our state, and I think the money was well-expended and I am well-pleased.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first=G.|editor-last=Brucker|title=The Society of Renaissance Florence: A Documentary Study|location=New York |year=1971|page=27|publisher=[[Harper & Row]]}}</ref></blockquote>

From 1479 Lorenzo became a permanent member of the committee supervising the rebuild of the ''signoria'' in Florence. He created a court of artists in his sculpture garden at San Marco which allowed him to exert 'enormous influence on the selection of artists on public projects'.<ref>E. B. Fryde, ''Humanism and Renaissance Historiography'' (London, 1983), 137</ref>