Lorenzo Il Magnifico

So much has been written on the famous art patronage of the Medici’s. But this revolutionary family was equally at home in playing the role of  music patrons. The rulers of Florence for most of the period 1434-1737, they were renowned for their patronage of learning, literature, the arts and science. Musical chapels were maintained at the city’s cathedral and baptistry from 1438; especially influential were Lorenzo the Magnificent (ruled 1449-92) and his son Giovanni, who ruled as Pope Leo X from 1513 and patronized many famous musicians. Duke Cosimo I (ruled 1537-74) reorganized and enlarged the chapels and began the practice of retaining musicians and dancers at court. He was also the first to commission musical festivities for family and state occasions. Intermedi were staged between the acts of plays, and in 1600 the first operas were given: Caccini’s Il rapimento di Cefalo and Peri’s Euridice (the earliest complete extant opera). A later Medici heir apparent, Prince Ferdinando (1663-1713), patronized Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti, Handel and others. Art and Music always walk hand in hand as history points out.

Signing off – T. Andrew Schoenberger