Answer:
Lorenzo de’ Medici ruled Florence with his brother Giuliano from 1469 to 1478. After the latter's assassination, the crowd stood by the Medici and tore the assassins limb from limb. Lorenzo was considered the Wise, “the needle on the Italian scales,” and ruled from 1478 to 1492. Lorenzo’s patronage of the arts was renowned, and those under his protection included Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci.
Lorenzo is viewed as one of the great patrons of the Renaissance, under whom the arts flourished in a golden age. This view has since been rejected by modern writers, on the grounds that to accept it would be to perpetuate a myth created by the Medici’s themselves.
Instead, Lorenzo began to be portrayed as primarily a collector of antiquities, who, unable to afford to commission art on a grand scale, had to satisfy himself with offering amateur advice to others. This view is now, in its turn, being challenged as an oversimplification that underestimates and misunderstands Lorenzo’s role as a patron: his patronage was more than a mere matter of political expediency, and his advice was sought by both rulers and civic bodies because he was considered an expert.