"'Great minds are heavenly forms and no dray horses for hire.' Giorgio Vasari, writing in the 16th century, attributes this statement to Cosimo de Medici the Elder (1389-1464), who was Fra Filippo's most important patron and commissioned many works from the 'great mind'. As simple as this brief sentence is, it clearly reflects a Neo-Platonic way of looking at things: the idea that the artist's temperament, the highest meaning of his work, is seen as a mirror of celestial life, inestimable, like a gift of the gods.
In other words, Cosimio the Elder was not in the least concerned with the fact that Fra Filippo was an eccentric artist, whose behavior was disreputable and dishonored the monk's habit that he gad worn ever since he was little more than a child." <The Library of Great Masters-Filippo Lippi>