So successful was the bank that under Cosimo de' Medici, who ruled it with an iron rod, the Medici were for a long while put in charge of papal finances.

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Fra Angelico's best-known work is his series of frescoes at San Marco in Florence, the Dominican convent from which he ventured forth under the aegis of his patron and friend, Cosimo de' Medici.

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For example, he has a revisionist view of the Medici, stubbornly refusing to eulogise Cosimo or Lorenzo de' Medici, the conventional heroes of popular histories of Renaissance Florence.

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Cosimo I de' Medici, then the second duke of Florence, purchased the Palazzo Pitti in 1549, and up until the completion of Versailles in Paris in the early 18th Century, Palazzo Pitti was considered the most opulent palace in Europe.

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When it was discovered in late 1553 near Arezzo, southeast of Florence, along with some smaller bronzes, it was quickly claimed by Cosimo I de' Medici, then the Duke of Florence, later the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the founder of the Uffizi.

WSJ: The Imaginary Made Nearly Read | The Chimera of Arezzo | Masterpiece by Judith H. Dobrzynski