Medici: Relationship between the patron and artist

The title says it all. Following the documentary on the Medici, I'm am going to talk about the relationship between the patron and the artist.

The Medici seems to be one very influential family during the Renaissance. Indeed, many artists we know of today have worked for them. Everybody knows about Michelangelo or Donatello (ok, some mainly because of the Ninja Turtles, but still, they know them) for example.

While I watched the documentary, one comment struck me. It said that the Patron let the artist ''free''. He didn't care about their temper, and he didn't care about what he was doing with their time. When they knew an artist could deliver the work well, he was understanding and accepting these traits.

I was surprised to hear that actually. I would have thought that this king of patronage wouldn't have allowed this. Now I think they were nice in some ways. Yet the artist was not considered an artist on its own, but still, to me, the patron considered them as such and also as important. If they were talented, it was important for them to keep them and treat them well. Its seems like the family understood that sometimes people can't work well if they are forced to do so. It was also a good thing for them to accept their temper for the same reasons. It was a wise choice.

As it was also said,  not all the patrons would have accepted such things. It seemed like the Medici were one of his own kind for this. This is surprising from the idea we have from the powerful families.

This kind of relationship still happens today, but doesn't work for everybody. If a patron would act like that with me, maybe not so many things would be done at the end. When you run a lot of projects, its easy to forget about what has to be done. It can be also hard to know where the priorities are.
In the artistic field, it is sometimes hard to work when other people asks you to, but sometimes you really have to give yourself a kick to get things done. Keeping your own reputation good is a motivation there, but sometimes it is not enough.
Also, If people are working alone, its even harder to manage this. We must learn to say no, even if the job is appealing. If you take too much, you are just going to get lost. I have experienced it!
This is not something that, I guess, was too common during the Renaissance as artists had workshops.
Today, the society is a little bit more egocentric for that. Our society wouldn't understand such way of working.