Lorenzo De’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence by F. W. Kent (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 254 Kaegi plays down the contrast between the victorious Persian war and the disastrous defeats against the Muslim Arabs. The detailed study of events makes clear how much the Byzantine victory over the Persians came after major setbacks and at the price of huge disruptions in the region—disruptions which Heraclius could not find adequate remedies against. In the same time, the study shows in better light Heraclius’s policy of containing the Muslim advance according to the strategic priorities of the empire and, thus, of laying the foundations for a possible counter-offensive at a later point. The Muslim invasion, in consequence, loses part of its at presently largely politicized image of a clash of civilizations and becomes more a story of shifts of power, fight for strategic supremacy and construction of more efficient mechanisms of authority. The other major accomplishment of Kaegi is to treat Heraclius’s internal policy strictly from the perspective of the emperor’s consistent efforts to solidify his family’s dominant position. His marriage to his niece Martina, his trust in his cousin Niketas and his brother Theodore, the early elevation to the imperial title of his eldest son Heraclius Constantine, betray bigger concerns for the familial patrimony than for the efficient administration and defense of the empire . Kaegi’s account of Heraclius’s reign is a successful attempt to substantiate our perspective on Early Middle Byzantine history with a clear idea of the real stakes involved in the dramatic military conflicts. The ensuing transformation of the social frame of the Byzantine area appears not to be the result of Heraclius ’s planned reform policy, but the inevitable outcome of changing economic and political conditions. Heraclius did not start any drastic reforms, to the contrary: the careful examination of the diverse written evidence, suggests that he tried his best to follow earlier patterns of administrative and diplomatic activity. Driven by his will to depict a realistic Heraclius, Kaegi assumed that his readers are all well-acquainted with the matter. The religious policy of Heraclius has not been explained at any length at any point of the book. In the same time, even after Kaegi’s perspective is built upon the premises that Byzantine successes and setbacks were largely pre-determined by the nature of the challenges , we are not offered much of a description of Byzantium’s opponents: Persians, Arabs, Avars, or Langobards. Kaegi has deliberately chosen not to distance himself from the subject of his research—Heraclius’s decision-making; but, as a result, Byzantium’s enemies remain faceless and their actions are not provided any clear explanation: in the long run this harms the author’s ambition to present a real-time portrait of an emperor within the historical text of the time he reigned in. The book’s main argument is that the major difference, for Heraclius, between the Persian and the Muslim invasion of the Byzantine East lay in his incapacity to deal with the Arabs along already existing patterns of addressing military and political challenges; without any substantial presentation of what makes the new Islamic conquerors so much different, the reader remains somewhat unsure as to the validity of such a person-centered approach. BORIS TODOROV, History, UCLA F. W. Kent, Lorenzo De’ Medici and the Art of Magnificence (Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press) xiii + 230 pp., ill. REVIEWS 255 F. K. Kent’s work is an outstanding contribution to Renaissance studies: it is dedicated to Lorenzo De’ Medici (1449–1492), and to his patronage of the arts. Starting from a historical point of view, this book is one of the most exhaustive works dedicated to Lorenzo De’ Medici in the English language. F. K. Kent studies Lorenzo’s relationship to all the arts, and cultural circles starting from the Magnifico’s role of political boss (maestro della bottega) of republican Florence, and his fundamental position in Renaissance Italian diplomacy. Organized chronologically, each chapter of the book focuses on the different stages of Lorenzo De’ Medici’s life, as politician, businessman, and artist. Chapter 1, “ Introduction: The myth of Lorenzo,” is a brief and general introduction of the role of Lorenzo as political leader and...