Gentile de' Becchi

According to historian Cecil Grayson, although de' Becchi's appointment as Bishop had been orchestrated by Lorenzo, both the Archbishop of Florence and Pope Sixtus IV held him in high esteem for his devotion to the faith, his knowledge, his abilities and his character.

Gentile became a prominent member of the Medici Academy, alongside the philosophers Marsilio Ficino, Cristoforo Landino, Agnolo Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola.

[2] In 1489, Lorenzo chose Gentile as tutor of his second son, Giovanni de' Medici, who had started on an ecclesiastical career in agreement with Pope Innocent VIII.

While Lorenzo's wife, Clarice Orsini, who did not share her husband's Platonic ideals, was happy to have the Bishop of Arezzo tutor her son, and wanted him to be given exercises out of the psalter, it caused conflict with Poliziano, of whom she was deeply suspicious.

Violent reprisals broke out in Florence with members and associates of the Pazzi family killed, including the Archbishop of Pisa, Francesco Salviati, a relative of Pope Sixtus, who was condemned to death and hanged.

[8] Gentile de' Becchi, as Bishop of Arezzo, stood by the Medici, breaking the interdict launched by Pope Sixtus IV against the Florentine clergy.

[2] In 1481, Sixtus commissioned a team of painters including Florentines Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio to take part in the painting of a series of narrative frescos in the Sistine Chapel.

[10] Gentile de' Becchi's oratorial skills made him the chosen representative of the Republic of Florence on a number of diplomatic missions, besides his role in making peace after the Pazzi conspiracy.