He is known principally for having commissioned from Botticelli the Allegory of Spring and The Birth of Venus, the latter one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance.
His grandson Lorenzino de' Medici was the assassin of Alessandro de' Medici (the Moor), the last ruler of Florence from the "senior" branch of the Medici, thereby passing power to Lorenzo's great-grandson Cosimo I de' Medici.
He was also supposedly the metaphorical subject of Botticelli's Pallas Athene Taming a Centaur, which was a gift to him from his distant cousin Lorenzo de' Medici (il Magnifico), on the occasion of his marriage to Semiramis d'Appiamo. il Magnifico apparently knew Lorenzo to be of brutal and debauched character, and it is supposed that in this painting he was trying to indicate that she should bring Lorenzo under control.