Art Museum Journal

By STAN PARCHIN

July 9, 2009

Lorenzo de' Medici (1449/1521), the National Gallery of Art's famous portrait bust of Renaissance Florence's wily Italian statesman, returned to public view on July 28, 2006 after conservation that followed more than a decade of extensive research. A gift to the museum in 1943, the painted terracotta sculpture was monochromatic and brown in appearance before treatment. Recent scientific studies confirmed the presence of accumulated layers of dirt and over-paint that obscured the work's original polychromatic beauty.

Restoration and Reattribution of Lorenzo de' Medici

The bust's restoration uncovered marvelously rosy tones in its lips and cheeks. Traces of beard stubble painted around Lorenzo's mouth, preserved by decades of grime, are now visible. They add to the statue's sense of realism. The sculpture's previously drab blue and brown attire has been transformed, revealing the subject's originally vibrant red headdress and scarf. The work now dons a purple-blue tunic. Studies in Italian Renaissance fashion encouraged restorers to remove a knob (a mistaken addition) from the bust's right shoulder. Plaster alterations to the sculpture's back and lower parts of its arms have been maintained. And in minor sections, in-painting has preserved the visual integrity of the statue's surface.

One result of the research related to the conservation of Lorenzo de' Medici was a 1997 reassessment of its attribution. The sculpture was previously thought to have been executed by Florentine sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio (ca. 1435-1488), the teacher of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Scholars now believe the bust was created by an unknown Italian sculptor, an early 16th-century artist who based this work on an image created by Orsino Benintendi, a wax portraitist supervised by Verrocchio.

Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), known as il Magnifico (the Magnificent) to his contemporaries, ruled Florence through family influence at the city's cultural height. He patronized the painters Sandro Botticelli (1444/45-1510), Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494) and Leonardo. The sculptors Donatello (ca. 1386-1466) and Verrocchio also benefited from his support. Botticelli's famous Birth of Venus (ca. 1483) reflected his patron's preferred taste for antique mythological themes during the classical revival in Quattrocento Italy.

Pazzi Conspiracy

Lorenzo's embittered enemies, envious of his pervasive political power achieved through his family's successful banking enterprises, conspired against him in Florence and Rome. A diabolical plot to assassinate the distinguished Lorenzo and his younger brother, Giuliano, quietly emerged. The scheme, supported by the nepotistic Pope Sixtus IV (r. 1471-1484) and Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (r. 1422-1482), was to be carried out by the Pazzi, a rival banking family.

After one failed attempt on the previous evening, Lorenzo and Giuliano attended morning High Mass in the Cathedral of Florence on April 26, 1478. Pazzi henchmen gathered in the church. The exact moment that the priest elevated the host or Eucharistic wafer during the Consecration of the Mass was the assailants' signal to murder the Medici brothers. Giuliano was stabbed numerous times and mortally wounded. Lorenzo, also assaulted, survived the nefarious Pazzi Conspiracy. He escaped to the church's sacristy from where he later emerged, more popular than ever in the eyes of the Florentine masses. Lorenzo thanked the citizens for their support by placing life-size wax statues of himself, produced under the careful supervision of the skilled Verrocchio, in some of Florence's churches. Sadly, none of these images have survived.

Giuliano de' Medici

The National Gallery of Art also possesses Verrocchio's Giuliano de' Medici (1478/1521), a terracotta portrait bust of superb quality. The upper torso of Lorenzo's brother is attired in an elaborately carved breastplate that is reminiscent of one possibly worn at a joust celebrating the younger Medici's coming of age in 1475. A fierce winged head with mouth wide open, similar to examples from classical Roman art, is prominently emblazoned in high-relief on the sitter's armor. Giuliano's self-assured pose suggests his commanding presence. In the aftermath of Giuliano's untimely death, Lorenzo de' Medici avenged his brother's assassination by orchestrating the assailants' murders. Francesco Salviati, the Archbishop of Pisa, and a co-conspirator were publicly hung from a window of Florence's town hall in retaliation for Guiliano's death. 

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