in the early 1470s, Florence was an even greater place to be an artist than it had been forty years previously in the days of Cosimo de’ Medici and Francesco Filelfo. The effective ruler of the city was now Lorenzo “the Magnificent” de’ Medici, who took over the family business in 1469. Although the Medici bank’s finances were creaking—they suffered catastrophic losses through their Bruges branch in the 1470s, when a rogue local manager made massive, unsecured loans to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, the son and successor of Philip the Good—Lorenzo’s eagerness to spend his money lavishly
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