ABSTRACT
With the death of Lorenzo the Magnifi cent and the
changing atmosphere in Florence, Rome became the
most powerful center of patronage in Italy. Whereas in
the fi fteenth century artists had gone to Rome to study
ancient ruins, in the sixteenth century they went for
commissions. Although many of these came from bank-
ers and other wealthy individuals, the most important
patrons were the popes. Under Julius II, the nephew of
Sixtus IV, Roman patronage became the most extensive
in western Europe. It was one of the greatest periods in
Western history of successful collaboration between a
patron and the artists who worked for him.
