Giuliano di Piero de' Medici

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Portrait by Sandro Botticelli. The dove on the dead branch and the half-open door have suggested that this is a memorial portrait. The stiff features and nearly-closed eyelids suggest that it may have been made from Giuliano's body or a death mask.

Giuliano de' Medici (1453 – 26 April, 1478, Florence), second son of Piero de' Medici (the Gouty). As co-ruler of Florence, with his brother Lorenzo the Magnificent, he complemented his brother's image as the "patron of the arts" with his own image as the handsome "sporting golden boy."

As the opening stroke of the Pazzi Conspiracy, he was assassinated in the Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, by Francesco de' Pazzi and Bernardo Baroncelli. He was stabbed nineteen times.

His illegitimate son with his mistress Fioretta Gorini, Giulio, went on to become Pope Clement VII.

He is buried with his brother Lorenzo, Il Magnifico, in the Medici Chapel of the Church of San Lorenzo; their tomb is ornamented with the Madonna and Child of Michelangelo.

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