Cosimo de’ Medici, the first of the…

Cosimo de’ Medici, the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during most of the Italian Renaissance, is noted for his patronage of culture and the arts, liberally spending the family fortune (which his astute business sense has considerably increased) to enrich Florence.

He had also hired the young architect and sculptor Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi to create what is today perhaps the prototypical Florentine palazzo, the austere and magnificent Palazzo Medici.

He has been a patron and confidante of Fra Filippo Lippi, the late Fra Angelico, and Donatello, whose famed David and Judith Slaying Holofernes are Medici commissions.

His patronage had enabled the late eccentric and bankrupt architect Brunelleschi to complete the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, and the dome is perhaps his crowning achievement as sponsor.

For Giovanni de' Medici, Cosimo's son, Michelozzo has designed the gardens of the Medici Villa at Fiesole in the manner suggested by Pliny the Younger, for relaxed summer living; the light, airy building with open loggias opens onto terraced gardens overlooking Florence.