Main theme: Michelangelo's formative years and the world of 15C Renaissance Florence.

Part 3. Palazzo Medici: A Renaissance Household

• Botticelli's Adoration of the Magi. Botticelli executed an entirely different version of the Adoration of the Magi. It featured several of the Medici family members, including the young Lorenzo the Magnificent. At the time it was commissioned for Santa Maria Novella and was therefore also open to the public.
• Lorenzo the Magnificent's wedding. The young Lorenzo was able to enjoy a very pleasant lifestyle The calender was filled with pageants: circuses, religious festivals, weddings, the May Day, the Palio etc. In 1469 the most spectacular events were Lorenzo's jousting tournament in Piazza Santa Croce - a build-up to his wedding - and the wedding banquet itself, held in Palazzo Medici.
• Palazzo Medici. Lorenzo himself was a lousy banker but a learned man and a splendid patron of the arts. At the centre of the Medici patronage stood the Palazzo Medici.
• Nurturing the masters. The Medici nurtured artists such as Uccello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Donatello, Filippo Lippi, Benozzo Gozzoli, Antonio di Jacopo Benzi. Piero de Medici - Lorenzo's father - was the one who really started the Medici's role as patrons of the arts. This meant that works by the great masters piled up in Palazzo Medici. Several of Uccello's paintings hung in Palazzo Medici when Michelangelo was still in his teens. The Rout of San Romano panels were commissioned by Piero de' Medici. He also commissioned works from Gozzoli, among them his masterpiece, the Procession of the Magi for the chapel in Palazzo Medici. Antonio Pollaiuolo executed a bronze of Hercules for Piero. In 1489 Lorenzo opened a sculpture school, a garden situated by the Piazza San Marco, a few minutes walk from Palazzo Medici. Here he placed the family's collection of ancient sculptures.

Sights and art works:

Adoration of the Magi, c. 1475, Botticelli, Galleria Uffizi

Portrait of Lorenzo, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi

Palazzo Medici-Riccardi

Rout of San Romano, c. 1450-6, Uccello, Galleria Uffizi

Procession of the Magi, 1459-60, Gozzoli, Palazzo Medici (chapel)

Hercules, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Museo Nazionale del Bargello