With plenty of altar candles the sight of these gardens of the blest must have beguiled many a mass.

Thinking here in England upon the Medici chapel, I find that the impression it has left upon me is chiefly cypresses--cypresses black and comely, disposed by a master hand, with a glint of gold among them.
The picture that was over the altar has gone.

It was a Lippo Lippi and is now in Berlin.
The first of the Medici family to rise to the highest power was Giovanni d'Averardo de' Medici (known as Giovanni di Bicci), 1360-1429, who, a wealthy banker living in what is now the Piazza del Duomo, was well known for his philanthropy and interest in the welfare of the Florentines, but does not come much into public notice until 1401, when he was appointed one of the judges in the Baptistery door competition.

He was a retiring, watchful man.

Whether he was personally ambitious is not too evident, but he was opposed to tyranny and was the steady foe of the Albizzi faction, who at that time were endeavouring to obtain supreme power in Florentine affairs.