DK Travel : Tuscany : Pitti Palace, Florence

Pitti Palace, Florence

4.0 /5 (1 vote)

Rate it

Review this attraction

Are these details incorrect?

This one-time residence of the Medici family is a treasure trove: there are royal apartments, galleries of modern art, costume, silverware and porcelain. But above all there is the Galleria Palatina, frescoed by Pietro da Cortona, and second only to the Uffizi. It contains one of the world’s best collections of Raphaels and Titians. The paintings are still hung 19th-century style, when “Does that Tintoretto match the room’s decor?” or “Let’s put all the round ones together” mattered more than any didactic arrangement.
For more on the Galleria Palatina (see Pitti Palace: Galleria Palatina) For more on the Medici family (see Medici Rulers)

Top 10 Pitti Sights

1. La Velata

Raphael did many portraits, usually of Madonnas, and several of his best are in these collections. La Velata (1516) is his masterpiece of the form, demonstrating his mastery of colour, light and form. The sitter is most likely La Fornarina, Raphael’s Roman girlfriend.
2. Consequences of War

Venus tries to stop Mars going to war, while a Fate pulls him towards it (1638;). This was an ageing Rubens’s plea against his homeland becoming embroiled in the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48).
3. Mary Magdalene

The first (1535) of many Mary Magdalenes painted by the Venetian master Titian.
4. Boboli Gardens

The Renaissance garden with Baroque and Rococo touches has cypress avenues, hidden statues and burbling fountains.
5. Madonna and Child

Filippo Lippi has masterfully placed the Madonna’s chin in this 1450 painting’s geometric centre, helping to unite a complex composition involving both the main scene and background images from the life of the Virgin.
6. Three Ages of Man

The attribution of this allegorical work of 1500 to Giorgione is not certain, but it is a beautiful piece nonetheless, with a strong sense of colour and composition. Compare it with the Baroque Four Ages of Man (1637), which was frescoed by Pietro da Cortona on the ceiling of the Sala della Stufa.
7. Green Room, the Royal Apartments

The best-preserved room in the royal apartments (Appartamenti Reali) contains such lavish furnishings as an ebony cabinet inlaid with semi-precious stones and bronze. The ceiling of the Green Room is set with trompe l’oeil stuccoes and a canvas by Luca Giordano.
8. Ammannati’s Courtyard

Mannerist architecture was a robust, oversized retake on the Renaissance. Bartolomeo Ammannati expounded this in dramatic, heavily rusticated Classical orders (1560–70).
9. The Tuscan Maremma

On the second floor, the modern art museum’s masterpiece is a work (1850) by Giovanni Fattori. He was the greatest of the Macchaioli, a 19th-century Tuscan school with parallels to Impressionism.
10. Grotta Grande

Mannerist cavern dripping with stylized stalactites, Giambologna statues and plaster casts of Michelangelo’s Slaves .

Practical Information

Wine bar Pitti Gola e Cantina, at Piazza Pitti 16, offers light meals, a range of Tuscan wines and a friendly welcome. Picnics are not officially allowed in the Boboli Gardens, but pick a secluded spot and you can still get away with it. If you liked the Pitti’s pietre dure table (see Galleria delle Statue), you can buy a modern version at a shop on the Piazza Pitti called Pitti Mosaici. Piazza dei Pitti Galleria Palatina and Appartamenti Reali: 055 238 8614, open 8:15am–6:50pm Tue–Sun some cumulative tickets available Galleria del Costume, open 8:15am–1:50pm, closed 2nd and 4th Sun and 1st, 3rd and 5th Mon of each month Museo delle Porcellane, open 8:15am–4:30pm Mon– Sun, closed 1st and last Sun of month Museo degli Argenti, open 8:15am–4:30pm Mon–Sun Boboli Gardens, open 8:15am Mon–Sun, closing times vary seasonally Admission charge; some cumulative tickets available