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Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino

Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi) Italian

Not on view


The nephew of Pope Leo X, Lorenzo (1492–1519) governed Florence for stretches from 1515 to 1519. After the death of his uncle Giuliano in 1516, he was considered the last legitimate Medici heir. A Francophile, he appears here attired in the latest French fashion. Raphael’s magnificent portrait embodied the exalted aspirations—dynastic and political—attached to Lorenzo. However, he died before producing a legitimate male heir (Alessandro de’ Medici was claimed as his natural son) and failed to become the wise ruler that the diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli fervently hoped for when dedicating to him the influential political treatise The Prince. As a paradigm of inscrutable aristocratic hauteur, Raphael’s portrayal anticipates Bronzino’s portraits.

Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio or Santi) (Italian, Urbino 1483–1520 Rome), Oil on canvas

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