The Murdered Brother, Or - Behold The Rotting Bodies Of The Pazzi Scum!

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Mars and Venus, Botticelli.  The reclining god was modeled from Giuliano de Medici, brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent.   Sunday, April 26, 1478, the brothers were attending high mass at the Duomo in Florence when they were attacked by assassins.  Lorenzo escaped but his brother was murdered.  In the church.  During high mass.  Two of the would be killers were priests.  The Pope had backed this play.  The assassins were lynched almost immediately, and there were some 80 executions, including the archbishop of Pisa.
Agnolo Ambrogini, Polizano as he is known, got the sword wielding Lorenzo in the sacristy thus saving his life, in all probability.  Polizano was gay, but high enough in status the the Office of the Night left him alone.  He was later poisoned by Piero d'Medici, an incompetent who was run out of town.  The two attackers going after Lorenzo were both priests, one managed to slash his neck with a dagger but lacked what it took to finish him off.  Cesare Borgia would have died rather than leave the job unfinished, one of his many good qualities.
Lorenzo was not known as the Magnificent for nothing.  Someone either gave him the sword or he had it on him, the conspirators had already hugged him carefully to see if he was armed.  That scene would have been something else.




"How beautiful is youth, that is always slipping away.  Whoever wants to be happy, let him be so;  about tomorrow there is no knowing".

Lorenzo de Medici, dead at age 42.




Giuliano.  Do I need to name the artist?




Lorenzo.  Oh, all right, the sculptor is Michelangelo.




Can't mention the one without the other.  This is the body of Bernardo di Bandino Baroncelli, by Da Vinci, hanging over the wall of the Bargello.  He struck the first blow with a dagger to Giuliano's chest, declaring "Take that, Traitor"!  Fled to Constantinople (now Istanbul) but was returned to Florence in chains.  When you take out a ruler, take him out.  See what happens when you fuck things up?

https://youtu.be/vsQrKZcYtqg?t=1



Comments

  1. chaosfive55April 10, 2022 at 11:23 AM

    Odd that you didn't mention the Pazzi family, chief instigators in this drama--a family steeped in murderous envy of the Medici success story and ready to do anything to supplant them. Francesco Pazzi had Guiliano on the floor, stabbing at hi so savagely that he ran himself through the thigh. This wound impeded his escape, and he was hanged from the walls of the Palazzo della Signoria, next to the archbishop! The dying archbishop, dangling and strangling in full vestments, sank his teeth into Pazzi's flesh. Dante would have simply nodded sagely.

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