ملف:Domenico Ghirlandaio - Confirmation of the Rule (detail) - WGA08812.jpg

(b. 1449, Firenze, d. 1494, Firenze)

Confirmation of the Rule (detail) 1483-85 Fresco Santa Trinità, Florence

The detail shows the tutors Luigi Pulci and Matteo Franco, as well as Piero and Giovanni, Lorenzo's two elder sons.

Lorenzo de' Medici provided the very best education for his children. He showed wise foresight in his planning of his son Giovanni's ecclesiastical career. Giovanni was given his spiritual tonsure as early as 1483, but in this fresco his hair is not yet cropped. He was ordained a cardinal in 1489, at the age of 13, and in 1513 ascended the Holy See as Pope Leo X.

Piero shortly after Lorenzo's death in 1494 bloodlessly surrendered Florence to Charles VIII, thus decreeing an exile of eighteen years for his family. He would later die by drowning in the Garigliano in 1503.

Matteo Franco, a close friend of Poliziano, was a confidant of Lorenzo and at the same time his children's elementary tescher. Luigi Pulci courted the favour of Lorenzo in competition with his rival Matteo Franco. The two men fought poetic duels, their sonnets are pearls of courtly abusive poetry that amused Lorenzo so greatly that his sons had to learn and say these poems by heart.

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Author: GHIRLANDAIO, Domenico Title: Confirmation of the Rule (detail) Time-line: 1451-1500 School: Italian Form: painting