Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici(1463-1503)

Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, head of the Medici family’s junior branch was orphaned at the age of 13. Together with his brother Giovanni, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco came under the guardianship of their cousin Lorenzo il Magnifico, a member of the senior branch of the House of Medici. Lorenzo and Giovanni’s relationship with their cousin was marked by conflicts and disagreement following an incident, where the brothers discovered that their cousin had plundered their patrimony in an attempt to counteract the bankruptcy of the Medici bank, the financial empire through which the family first attained their wealth and political power.

The brothers were granted exceptional education by notable humanist tutors and additionally received several properties for compensation. However, these attempts to settle the arguments failed and the rupture peaked when, in 1484, Lorenzo il Magnifico took legal actions to prevent Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco from gaining political power.

This meant that following his death, il Magnifico’s son, Piero, came to power until he was ousted from Florence by a Republican government which was introduced after the invasion of the French. Lorenzo and Giovanni sided with the popular, Republican party, which won them the nickname Popolano („of the people“).

In art history, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, himself a poet, is important since many of the contributions of the House of Medici (1434 - 1737) to the cultural capital of Florence can be linked to him. Artists under his patronage were, for example, Botticelli and Michelangelo.