Tag: piero de' medici

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season three

Episode 37: The Exile

Still in exile, Piero de’ Medici throws himself on the mercy of the new king of France and Cesare Borgia. But will they prove to be reliable friends?


“Bayard on the Bridge of Garigliano”, a painting depicting the Battle of Garigliano (December 29, 1503) by Félix Henri Emmanuel Philippoteaux (1840). Source: Palais de Versailles.
A contemporaneous portrait of King Louis XII of France from the workshop of Jean Perréal (c. 1514). Source: The Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace.

Transcript

While Savonarola rose to power, Piero remained in Venice, gambling away what little money he got from loans off of Medici sympathizers or made working for Venice as an army captain. But still, Piero remained optimistic. He believed, especially after Savonarola’s downfall, that either the Pope, the Duke of Milan, or the Doge of Venice would force Florence to allow him to return home. And he still insisted to his allies that he would “return not as a lord, but as a citizen.”  What would happen after that…well, personally I suspect Piero didn’t give that much thought beyond his first night where he would, as he put it, enjoy some grapes back in the Palazzo Medici. Unfortunately, Venice and Florence signed a peace treaty on April 1499 which secured the release of Piero’s brother Cardinal Giovanni, who had been captured and imprisoned. However, the clauses of the treaty did not include any provision for the Medici’s return to Florence.

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season two

Episode 21: The Rising Son

Even as a small child, Lorenzo had been thrust into the role of the public face of the Medici regime. Now an adult, Lorenzo’s own marriage to a Roman noblewoman from a clan claiming the Emperor Augustus and Julius Caesar as ancestors is a chance for the Medici to ascend even higher. Meanwhile, Piero is finally succumbing to his gout, just when both the domestic and foreign situations are starting to fall apart. 

“The Counterattack of Michelotto di Cotignola” (c. 1455), one of Paolo di Dono’s three paintings commemorating the Florentine victory over Siena at the Battle of San Romano in 1423, commissioned by Piero de’ Medici. Source: The Louvre, Paris.
Boticelli’s Adoration of the Magi (1475 or 1476), which includes a depiction of the 16-year-old Lorenzo de’ Medici on the far left. Source: Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
A posthumous terracotta bust of Lorenzo de’ Medici, which was likely based on a 1478 wax sculpture by Andrea del Verrocchio and Orsino Benintendi. Date unknown. Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Girolamo Machietti’s posthumous portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Date unknown. Source: Palazzo Pitti, Florence.
A portrait likely of Clarice Orsini by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1490s). Source: National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

Transcript

Well, I know “Rising Sun” is probably one of the most obvious word plays you can make in this case, but it really is just…too relevant. Because Lorenzo di Piero di’ Medici was exactly that. From a very early age he was seen as the future of the family, so much so that his poor father Piero, through no fault of his own, was seen as little more than a placeholder, whose most important job was to live long enough for Lorenzo to reach adulthood.

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season two

Episode 20: Conspiracy or Countercoup?

Piero de’ Medici narrowly escaped death or abduction. But did everything happen as Piero and his son Lorenzo said? And just how will the Party of the Hill survive when they apparently bet everything on one scheme? 

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Transcript

Last time, we saw Piero narrowly dodge a possible abduction or assassination attempt. Only the fact that his son Lorenzo wasn’t recognized and was able to get back to Florence using the backroads foiled the plot. Or was that actually what happened? A silk merchant and staunch critic of the Medici regime, Marco Parenti, left behind an interesting memoir that was discovered, having laid forgotten in the archives, by historian Mark Phillips in the 1970s.

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season two

Episode 19: Hill Versus Plain

Piero de’ Medici seems to be enjoying a smooth transition to power, but soon enough a rival political party takes shape on the high ground just across the river from the Palazzo de’ Medici. When legal measures fail to dislodge the Medici, the so-called “Party of the Hill” proves itself more than willing to resort to more drastic measures. Meanwhile we get a better look at Piero, the math professor of the Renaissance, and his wife Lucrezia, wife/mother/patron/businesswoman/writer.

The Palazzo Pitti, which was built by banker-politician Luca Pitti to rival the Palazzo de’ Medici which lied just across the River Arno. Since the palace sat on high ground, it inspired the name given to Luca’s anti-Medici political party, the Party of the Hill. Today, it houses the largest museum complex in Florence. Source: Ed Webster.
A portrait of Luca Pitti, date and painter unknown. Source: Kursk State Art Gallery, Kursk Oblast, Russian Federation.
A portrait of Lucrezia de’ Medici, née Tornabuoni, by Domenico Ghirlandaio (c. 1475). Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
A bust of Piero de’ Medici at the Bargello in Florence. Source: Yair Haklai.

Transcript

Something I didn’t really get into was that, while Cosimo was able to cling tightly to power since the general assembly he called under the steely gaze of armed troops, discontent had been simmering in the last years of his unofficial reign. Many of Cosimo’s top lieutenants who helped ensure the government would carry out his wishes, especially Agnolo Acciaiuoli, Luca Pitti, and Dietisalvi Neroni, all became increasingly critical of the Medici and their tactic of pre-selecting candidates for office, even though they did not dare do anything to act upon their criticisms or voice them too loudly.

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Categories
season two

Episode 18: Succession

At the height of his political power, Cosimo de’ Medici is being overwhelmed with illness and personal tragedy. Who will succeed him to his invisible, nameless throne? His son Piero, who unfortunately is a middle-aged man so sick no one thinks he will live for much longer.

Transcript

As far as we know, it was smooth sailing for Cosimo after the general assembly of 1458. The old lists of enfranchised lists that had been put together under the Albizzi were burned. Through Cosimo’s new council, the Cento, not only were hundreds of citizens disenfranchised but new lists of citizens were drawn up to be placed in the electoral bags. And although the republic still operated the same way it had since the Ordinances of Justice were enacted, few if any important decisions were made without Cosimo’s input. In his memoirs Pope Pius II observed that after the general assembly “Cosimo was refused nothing. He was regarded as the arbiter of war and peace, the regulator of law; not so much a citizen as the master of his city. Political councils were held at his house; the magistrates he nominated were elected; he was king in all but name and state.”

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