Tommaso Portinari

Tommaso Portinari (1424?-1501) was an Italian banker for the Medici bank in Bruges. He was a member of a prominent Florentine family, coming from Portico di Romagna, near Forlì; that family had included Dante's muse, Beatrice Portinari. His father was a Medici branch manager, and after his death in 1421, Tommaso and his orphaned brothers were taken in and raised in the household of Cosimo de Medici. Today he is mainly remembered for two significant commissions of Early Netherlandish paintings.

Portinari was an employee in the Bruges branch for a very long time, more than 25 years, but never rose higher than assistant manager and factor, apparently at the insistence of Cosimo de Medici, who did not trust him. After Cosimo's death, he became general manager and shareholder in the branch at the age of 40. (His brothers had long been managers of the Milan branch of the bank.) When Francesco Sassetti's influence removed the long-standing ban on lending to secular officials in 1471, Portinari used his position to make very large and extremely risky unsecured loans to Charles the Bold—loans which were never repaid and cost the bank heavily. He initially loaned 6000 groat, more than twice that branch's total capital; the loan only grew worse, until it stood at 9500 groat in 1478. Unsurprisingly, for his good services, Portinari became a favored councilor to Charles the Bold. On the latter's death in battle, the loan went essentially into default. Further good money was thrown after bad when he lent to Archduke Maximilian of Austria, Charles's successor. A small portion of this loan was eventually repaid.

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