Piazza de' Pitti, 1
Palazzo Pitti is an imposing Renaissance palace in Florence. It is
located in the Oltrarno area, a short distance from Ponte Vecchio. The
original nucleus of the building dates back to 1458, as the urban
residence of the banker Luca Pitti. The palace was then purchased by the
Medici family in 1549 and became the main residence of the grand dukes
of Tuscany, first De Medici and from 1737 Habsburg-Lorraine. Following
the unification of Italy, it played the role of royal palace for the
House of Savoy in the five years in which Florence was the capital of
the Kingdom of Italy (1865-70). In 1919 Vittorio Emanuele III donated it
to the State: since then it has been a state museum.
In fact, it
houses an important set of museums: the Palatine Gallery, arranged
according to the criterion of the eighteenth-century picture gallery,
with masterpieces by Raphael and Titian; the Royal Apartments, the
apartment of the Duchess of Aosta and the district of the Prince of
Naples (ordinarily not open to tourists); the Gallery of Modern Art
(with works by the Macchiaioli), and other specialized museums: the
Treasury of the Grand Dukes, dedicated to applied art; the Museum of
fashion and costume, the largest Italian museum dedicated to fashion;
the Porcelain Museum and the Coach Museum. The palace is completed by
the Boboli Gardens, one of the best examples of an Italian garden in the
world.
Since 2014, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and
Activities has brought together the palace, garden and Uffizi Gallery
within a single administration, creating the Uffizi Galleries, a new
entity with special autonomy. In 2022 it received 650 612 visitors,
making it one of the most visited museums in Italy.
At the time it was built, Palazzo Pitti was the largest and most
opulent residence in Florence.
Luca Pitti was a rival of the
Medici family and wanted a more showy residence than the one just
erected by Michelozzo for Cosimo the Elder, although he was then unable
to complete it due to the political and economic collapse, also thanks
to the huge debt contracted. The tradition handed down by Giorgio Vasari
(without, however, other evidence) has it that the Pittis turned to
Filippo Brunelleschi around 1440, choosing the project shelved by Cosimo
de' Medici for Palazzo Medici because it was judged too grandiose and
susceptible to envy, preferring him the more dosed one by Michelozzo.
Legend has it that Luca Pitti demanded that the windows of the new
palace be larger than the main door of Cosimo's and that the courtyard
could contain the entire Palazzo Strozzi (although Palazzo Pitti has
only three sides on the courtyard, instead of four). The actual
realization, which has little to do with the sobriety of Brunelleschi
(among other things who died twelve years earlier) and seems more
similar to the indications of Leon Battista Alberti's De re
aedificatoria, refers more to the classical Roman solemnity. Officially
the architect was Luca Fancelli, a pupil and collaborator of
Brunelleschi.
Due to design problems, work on the palace was
temporarily interrupted, and perhaps thanks to the unfavorable fate of
Luca Pitti in politics, one might think that, a bit like the Strozzis,
who in the race to outdo the Medici had fatally indebted having to leave
a part of Palazzo Strozzi unfinished, the Pittis also found themselves
in financial difficulties so that the works were interrupted in 1465.
The family, however, resided in the palace from 1469, even after the
death of Luca Pitti (1472).
Subsequently, the fortunes of the family did not improve and in
1549-1550 Buonaccorso Pitti sold the palace to Eleonora di Toledo, wife
of Cosimo I de' Medici and daughter of the viceroy of Naples, who
considered the Oltrarno more salubrious than the crowded city center on
the north bank. In fact, she suffered from pulmonary haemorrhages, since
she had contracted tuberculosis and her children were also in poor
health, so much so that two of her had already died in swaddling
clothes. Furthermore, being accustomed to court life and the light of
Naples, she felt suffocated by the narrowness of Palazzo Medici and the
structure with few windows of Palazzo Vecchio, her initial homes in
Florence.
The palace thus became the main residence of the
Medici, without actually changing its name, and giving rise to the
extraordinary rebirth of the Oltrarno district, as the noble families of
the city imitated the grand dukes by competing to build noble residences
on the just-cut via Maggio or Via dei Serragli. Palazzo Pitti itself was
the subject of massive restoration works, entrusted to the expert hands
of Bartolomeo Ammannati and Niccolò Tribolo (in addition to the
ever-present Vasari), continued also at the turn of the century by the
hand of Bernardo Buontalenti. Other expansion works on the original
structure were carried out during the 17th century: the expansion of the
facade on Piazza Pitti (1618-1631); the addition of the Fonte del Leone,
adorned with the Medici grand-ducal crown, by order of Cosimo III
(1696).
Ammannati's courtyard was sometimes the setting for
extraordinary events, such as a naval battle between twenty Turkish and
Christian ships (for which the courtyard was flooded until it reached a
depth of almost two meters) or the celebrations for the wedding between
Ferdinando I de' Medici and Christina of Lorraine in 1589.
Sporadic additions and modifications were often made by the various
occupants of the building by other architects: and for example in the
eighteenth century Giuseppe Ruggieri added the two side wings that
embrace the square, according to a French-inspired court of honor model.
Francis I of Lorraine did not like Florence and never took up
residence in the city, while his son Pietro Leopoldo was the first grand
duke who dedicated himself to governing Tuscany, among other things with
great reform works which considerably modernized the city and the state.
In the early 19th century, the palace was also used by Napoleon
Bonaparte as a residence for his passage through the city during his
government of Italy. Subsequently, with the return of the Lorraines,
various extensions were carried out, including the arrangement of the
front roundabouts and the construction of an internal staircase by the
architect Pasquale Poccianti. Noteworthy were the works sent from
Palazzo Pitti to France during the Napoleonic looting. According to the
catalog published in the Bulletin de la Société de l'art français of
1936, the Stories of Jacob and the Stories of Muzio Scevola by Bonifacio
Veronese were sent, but were lost en route and never reached their
destination. Paolo Veronese's Moses Crossing the Nile was also lost en
route and a similar fate befell the Holy Family of Annibale Carracci,
which never arrived at its destination. The Portrait of a Man by
Bartholomeus van der Helst reached Paris and was exhibited at the Musée
Napoleon but no trace of it was lost when Canova worked for
restitutions.
In 1833, under Leopold II, parts of the palace were
opened to the public as a museum.
The Lorraines withdrew after
the vote that decided the annexation of Tuscany to Piedmont, in the
process of Italian unification, with the palace thus passing to the use
of the House of Savoy.
Vittorio Emanuele II actually resided
there from 1865 when Florence became the capital of Italy, until 1871
when he moved to the Quirinale palace in Rome, the new capital. Of the
Savoy era, among other things, remains in the Throne Room, the fresco of
The Genius of the House of Savoy presents Italy to the assembly of other
nations by Annibale Gatti, in the Meridiana building.
On 22 July 1952, Palazzo Pitti saw the birth of Italian High Fashion
with the historic fashion show in the Sala Bianca. Alongside nine
fashion houses (Roberto Capucci, Vincenzo Ferdinandi, Germana Marucelli,
Giovannelli-Sciarra, Antonelli, Vanna, Carosa, Polinober and Jole
Veneziani, sixteen boutique and leisure fashion companies also paraded
(Emilio Pucci, Mirsa, Avoli , Luisa Spagnoli, Emilia Bellini, Gaber,
Amelia, Brioni, Effe Zeta, Possenti, Valditevere, Formenti, Glans,
Eliglao and Tessitrice dell'Isola.) A very young Oriana Fallaci sent by
the weekly Epoca told the exciting story.
After various
restorations, in the years 1980/1990, the arrangement with six museums
divided into different exhibition themes was reached: Palatine Gallery
and Monumental Apartments on the noble floor, Silver Museum and Carriage
Museum on the ground floor, Modern Art Gallery on the second floor and
Costume Gallery in the Palazina della Meridiana. The museums were
managed by the Superintendency formerly Polo Museale Fiorentino. In the
other non-museum wings there are extraordinarily open spaces for
exhibitions and events, restoration laboratories, warehouses and offices
(including on the ground floor the former Superintendency of
Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of
Florence and for the provinces of Pistoia and Prato, and the booking
office for the ticket offices).
With the Franceschini Reform of
2014, Palazzo Pitti entered under the special management of the "Uffizi
Galleries", with a single director employed only by the Ministry,
without the intermediation of a superintendence. Since then some
realities have changed: since the Carriage Museum has been closed for
decades and the itinerary of the Monumental Apartments has been resized
(now limited to a single room in continuity with the itinerary of the
Palatine Gallery), the name of the Silver Museum has instead changed of
the Grand Dukes.
Originally, Palazzo Pitti had seven windows on both the first and
second floors and allowed entry from not one but three gates (among
which the lateral ones were converted into "kneeling" windows during
Ammannati's renovation). The facade is composed according to a fixed
module, which recurs in the width of the openings and in the distance
between them; multiplied by two gives the height of the openings and by
four the height of the floors.
A novelty was the presence of a
square in front of the building, the first built in front of a private
palace in Florence, which allowed a frontal and centered view from
below, according to the privileged point of view also defined by Leon
Battista Alberti. The point of contact with the
Brunelleschi/Michelotti-style model of Palazzo Medici is the sloping
protruding ashlar front, developing in width with seven windows, with a
central door which, after a dark passage, leads into a large courtyard
which leads to the monumental stairs to the upper floors.
From
1616 a competition was launched to expand the part of the building on
the square, won by Giulio Parigi, Ammannati's nephew, who led the
extension works of the body of the facade from 1618, completed by
Alfonso Parigi, his son, in 1631.
In 1560 the first extension of
the building was carried out by Bartolomeo Ammannati, who built, among
other things, the imposing multi-storey courtyard with the original and
unprecedented motif of the steps alternating along all the surfaces (a
motif widely taken up in other European palaces, such as the Luxembourg
in Paris, which is inspired by the whole Palazzo Pitti).
The
arrangement of the gardens had already been begun in 1551 by Niccolò
Tribolo. The original design of the gardens was centered on a central
amphitheater, which was built by exploiting the natural shape of the
hill, where comedies and tragedies of classical inspiration were
frequently staged, such as some written by Giovan Battista Cini, while
the sets were designed by the architect Baldassarre Lanci court.
In 1565 Vasari built the famous "Vasari Corridor" to connect Palazzo
Pitti with Palazzo Vecchio, passing through the church of Santa
Felicita, Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi.
In the meantime, between
1558 and 1570, Ammannati created a monumental staircase for the noble
floor (first floor) and enlarged the rear wings of the building towards
the garden, thus embracing the courtyard and closing it on the west side
by a body surmounted by a terrace which was accessed from the noble
apartments on the first floor. From this point of view it faced the
Boboli hill at equal height, dominating the slope. A large fountain was
also placed on the terrace, later called (1641), Fontana del Artichofo,
designed by Giambologna's assistant, Giovanni Francesco Susini. In the
internal courtyard, an extravagant grotto was later built with
calcareous concretions and statues of cherubs swimming in the tub called
Grotta di Moses. The large Grotta del Buontalenti is located in the
garden, adjacent to the first exit of the Vasari Corridor. Vasari
himself began the work, stopping at the lower part of the facade, but
its construction is mainly due to Bernardo Buontalenti who built it
between 1583 and 1593, commissioned by Francesco I de' Medici: it is
made up of three environments characterized by fantastic decorations
that link together painting, sculpture and architecture, illusionistic
effects and water games.
Built at the behest of Cosimo I in 1560,
the Chapel of the Relics (consecrated in 1616) housed the precious
reliquaries of the grand duke's collections. Inside there were cabinets
decorated with painted panels by Giovanni Bilivert, Filippo Tarchiani,
Fabrizio Boschi and Matteo Rosselli and containing liturgical or profane
objects and cases made by Giovan Battista Foggini, Massimiliano Soldani
Benzi, Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli.
The Palatine Gallery is located on the noble floor in the left arm of
the building, where some of the most beautiful rooms in the entire
complex are located. After Ammannati's majestic staircase, one arrives
at the rooms that were mostly used by the Grand Duke, both for his
private residence and for public hearings. The exhibition itinerary
begins in the vestibule and continues with some rooms dedicated to
sculpture (the busts of the grand dukes are interesting, especially of
Cosimo I portrayed as a Roman emperor) and to antique furniture, such as
the Sala degli Staffieri, the Gallery of Statues and the Sala del
Castagnoli, beyond which the tunnel proper begins on the left. The
following rooms take their name from the theme of the frescoes that
decorate them on the vaults. The cycle is dedicated to Greco-Roman
mythology, but also celebrates the Medici dynasty according to a precise
and articulated symbolic system. In particular, the mythological
subjects represent examples that allude to the theme of the life and
education of the Prince, and represent a fundamental work of the Baroque
in Florence, which produced a profound influence on local artists from
the seventeenth century onwards. The frescoes in the first five rooms
were painted by the most famous painter of the time, Pietro da Cortona,
while the other rooms are the work of neoclassical artists from the
first half of the 19th century.
The superb collection of
paintings is centered on the period of the late Renaissance and the
Baroque, the golden age of the palace itself, and is the most important
and extensive example in Italy of "quadreria", where, unlike a modern
museum , the paintings are not exhibited with systematic criteria, but
purely decorative, covering most of the surface of the wall in
symmetrical patterns.
The layout is therefore very faithful to
the original layout commissioned by Grand Duke Leopold II between the
end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth
century. In particular, in that period, steps were taken to arrange a
part of the works of the immense Medici heritage which could not all be
exhibited in the Uffizi for reasons of physical space, leaving there, in
principle and with due exceptions, the works of the first period of the
Renaissance, up to the early sixteenth century.
The picture
gallery arrangement, enhanced by rich carved and gilded frames, was
intended to amaze and amaze visitors to the reception rooms. In addition
to the paintings, the rooms are also enriched by sculptures and pieces
of precious furniture, such as the tables and cabinets beautifully
inlaid with semi-precious stones according to the art of the Florentine
salesman, practiced since the seventeenth century by the Opificio delle
Pietre Dure.
At the end of the Gallery itself, a series of rooms
is part of the Monumental Apartments which once formed a separate
museum.
The Monumental Apartments are a museum complex made up of the 14
rooms of the Royal Apartments and the 6 rooms of the Tapestry Apartment,
which extend to the first floor of the building respectively in the
central and southern lateral part of the main building and in the
southern lateral wing rear of the architectural complex.
All of
these 14 rooms were used by the Medici family and their successors
during the centuries in which the Grand Duke of Tuscany resided here. In
particular, these rooms on the first floor in the right wing were
intended for the Crown Prince, while the reigning Grand Duke lived in
the left wing (where the Palatine Gallery is housed). The prince's wife,
on the other hand, lived in the corresponding side wing bordering the
prince's apartments. The decoration and furnishings have changed a lot
since the Medici era, often with embellishments and stylistic choices
typical of the families who later resided there, such as the
Habsburg-Lorraine and the Savoy (after the unification of Italy, during
the period of Florence ).
The predominant aspect is in fact today
that dating back to Umberto I and Margherita of Savoy, thanks to a
restoration completed in 1993, who lived there since 1865. In 1912 a
part of the building, the one that was already open as a museum from the
time of the Lorraine , passed to the State, and the Savoys only kept the
series of rooms where the Gallery of Modern Art is now housed for their
occasional visits to the city until the 1920s.
Contrary to the
sumptuous reception halls of the Palatine Gallery, these rooms are
smaller and have an atmosphere that is in some ways more intimate and
familiar, while maintaining a strong sumptuousness. Among the period
furnishings are the four-poster beds and other bedroom furnishings,
which do not appear in any other room of the building. The kit of
objects, tapestries and furniture was in part brought by the Savoys,
bringing together here the objects from the various Italian palaces that
they had "inherited" from the other ruling houses of Italy, above all
from Lucca and Parma. As far as the paintings are concerned, the series
of Medici portraits, mostly by the painter Giusto Suttermans, is
interesting.
After the restoration, the rooms called the Apartment of the Princes were reopened to the public, where the sons of Ferdinando I and Christine of Lorraine spent their days: Cosimo, Francesco, Filippo, Carlo and Lorenzo.
The wing known as the Palazzina della Meridiana was built on behalf
of Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena from 1776 on the southern side of the
building. The work was begun by the architect Gaspare Paoletti, who
worked on it until 1813 assisted by Giuseppe Cacialli. A decade later it
was completed by Pasquale Poccianti, who created the southern façade,
equipped the building with new rooms and oversaw the decoration
programme.
In 2007, after more than a century, the building was
reopened allowing you to admire the sundial, the work of Vincenzo
Viviani, and the frescoes that Anton Domenico Gabbiani created for the
Grand Prince Ferdinando.
The Boboli Gardens is today a historic park in the city of Florence.
Born as the grand ducal garden of Palazzo Pitti, it is also connected to
the Forte di Belvedere, a military outpost for the safety of the
sovereign and his family. The garden, which welcomes over 800,000
visitors every year, is one of the most important examples of Italian
gardens in the world and is a veritable open-air museum, due to the
architectural-landscape setting and the collection of sculptures ranging
from from Roman antiquity to the 20th century.
The gardens were
built between the 16th and 19th centuries by the Medici, then by the
Habsburg-Lorraine and the Savoys, and occupy an area of about 45,000 m².
Over the years, new portions with different settings were added to the
first layout of the late Renaissance style, visible in the nucleus
closest to the building: along the axis parallel to the building, the
perspective axis of the viottolone was born, from which paths covered
with gravel which lead to ponds, fountains, nymphaeums, small temples
and caves. Remarkable is the importance that the statues and buildings
assume in the garden, such as the eighteenth-century Kaffeehaus (rare
example of rococo style in Tuscany), which allows you to enjoy the view
over the city, or the Limonaia, still in the original Lorraine green
colour.
The garden has four entrances that can be used by the
public: from the courtyard of Palazzo Pitti, from the Forte di
Belvedere, from via Romana (the Annalena entrance) and from the piazzale
di Porta Romana, as well as an "extra" exit onto Piazza Pitti.
Overall, the gardens have a vaguely elongated triangular configuration,
with steep slopes and two almost perpendicular axes that cross near the
Fountain of Neptune which stands out against the panorama. Starting from
the central paths of the axes, a series of terraces, avenues and paths
develop, perspective views with statues, paths, clearings, enclosed
gardens, buildings and ancient rose bushes, in an inexhaustible source
of curious and scenographic environments. Here we also find the
Mostaccini fountain whose sequence of waterfalls is a
seventeenth-century testimony of the ancient drinking troughs for decoy
birds, used in the practice of fowling. There are also a series of
ancient underground aqueducts that fed the entire complex.
A part
of the garden is dedicated to the collection of Camellias, which began
in the seventeenth century and which today, thanks to the work of the
gardeners, has been partially recovered after a period of decline.
Between 2000 and 2005 the Tepidarium of the Upper Botany was at the
center of a series of restoration and cleaning interventions of the
external and internal environments to make the building functional
again. Some of these interventions were also carried out thanks to funds
from the Lotto game, on the basis of the provisions of law 662/96.