Medici

(noun)

A last name of a powerful and influential aristocratic Florentine family from the 13th to 17th centuries.

Related Terms

Examples of Medici in the following topics:

  • Art and Patronage

    • The House of Medici was an Italian banking family, political dynasty and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century.
    • The Medici were responsible for the majority of Florentine art during their reign.
    • In architecture, the Medici are responsible for some notable features of Florence; including the Uffizi Gallery, the Boboli Gardens, the Belvedere,the Medici Chapel and the Palazzo Medici.
    • Later, in Rome, the Medici Popes continued in the family tradition of patronizing artists in Rome.
    • However, the Medici family did afford the scientist a safe haven for many years.

  • Italian Politics

    • The Medici were responsible for the majority of Florentine art during their reign.
    • The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe.
    • The Medici family were among the earliest businesses to use the system.
    • Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was the first of the Medici political dynasty and had tremendous political power in Florence.
    • Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici, the found of the House of Medici, by Jacopo Pontormo; the laurel branch (il Broncone) was a symbol used also by his heirs.

  • Private Patronage

    • Another example of a well-known patron of the arts is Catherine de Medici, who made a significant contribution to the French Renaissance through her widespread patronage .
    • A well-known patron of the arts is Catherine de Medici, who made a significant contribution to the French Renaissance through her widespread patronage.

  • Renaissance Architecture

    • Basements and ground floors were sometimes rusticated, as modeled on the Palazzo Medici Riccardi (1444–1460) in Florence.

  • France and Cardinal Richelieu

    • Like Concini, the Bishop was one of the closest advisers of Louis XIII's mother, Marie de Médicis.
    • Concini was consequently assassinated and Marie de Médicis overthrown.
    • In 1619, Marie de Médicis escaped from her confinement.

  • Renaissance Sculpture in Florence

    • His foremost sponsor in Florence was Cosimo de'Medici, the city'sgreatist patron of art.
    • Donatello created his bronze David for Cosimo's court in the Palazzo Medici.

  • Italian Painting: 1200–1400

    • Each of these leading families vied for power, but also for cultural prominence, and became great patrons of the arts (the Medici family being the prime example).
    • Artists were able to work in Florence at least in part due to the influential art guilds, including the painters' guild Arte dei Medici e Spezeiali.

  • Rome and the Papal States

    • Rome reached the highest point of splendor under Pope Julius II (1503–1513) and his successors Leo X and Clement VII, both members of the Medici family.

  • Rome

    • Napoleon moved the Academy to the Villa Medici in 1803 with intention of preserving it from being threatened by the French Revolution.

  • Italian Painting in the Baroque Period

    • The creation of man, fresco in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence, 1684-1686.