Lorenzo de Medici (1449-92) 'The Magnificent' (oil on panel) Artist Vasari, Giorgio (1511-74) Location Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (January 1, 1449, Florence ?8 April 1492, Carregio) was an Italian statesman and ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (il Magnifico) by contemporary Florentines, he was the most remarkable public figure of his time - accomplished in the manly arts of jousting and the hunt, as well as a wily diplomat, and the head of a brilliant group of scholars and poets. He was charismatic, tough, passionate, and energetic, equally devoted to his city, his family, the Church, and the pursuit of art and learning. His life coincided with the high point of the early Italian Renaissance, and his premature death marked the end of the Golden Ageolm, of Florence. The tenuous peace that he helped to maintain between the various Italian states collapsed with his death, and the French invasion of 1494 - two years after his death - began nearly 400 years of foreign occupation of the Italian Pennisula. Though the Medici remained in power in Florence for several centuries (as well as producing three Popes and two Queens of France), none of his successors ever approached his range of interests and accomplishments, or the generosity of his vision. Giorgio Vasari (Arezzo, Tuscany July 3, 1511 - Florence, June 27, 1574) was an Italian painter and architect, mainly known for his famous biographies of Italian artists. 固opFoto / OM