Pitti Palace

The Palazzo Pitti is located on the south side of the Arno, near where the Ponte Vecchio crosses the river.  The palace was started by a wealthy banker Luca  Pitti, who eventually had to sell it to his arch rivals, the Medicis.

Today the palace is broken into a series of museums.  We toured the Palatine Gallery (which includes the Royal Apartments) and the Museum of Modern Art.  Modern art as defined here is anything after the Renaissance, and, with the exception of one special exhibit of a 20th century Tuscan painter, the collection was pre-1900 Italian art.

Compared to the Ufizzi, the Pitti is a poor gallery. The lighting is bad, the labels are hard to read or missing, and the traffic flow is not always logical. 

Titian, The Suicide of Lucretia

I did manage to find one Titan, one Rafael, and a couple of Tintorettos, but most of the art was unimpressive.  The Titian had undergone X-ray analysis and it disclosed a completely different version of the painting underneath -- one in which the man is holding the knife, turning it into a murder instead of a suicide.











There were some nice sculptures, throughout both galleries.


Victor Hugo. Gaetano Trentanove



Verdi, Vincenzo Gemito

Galleria di Giove (Jupiter)

Some of the rooms were more interesting than the paintings in them. 


Galleria del "Poccetti"

Some were covered with frescos on both the ceilings and upper walls.  This one has a calendar going around the room.

the Throne Room

The royal apartments are shown as they were in the 1880s when the palace was occupied by the House of Savoy.  Here the style is heavy velvets and brocades, dark colors, big chandeliers.

















The tour even shows off Napoleon's bathroom, designed as part of the renovations to the palace to accommodate the Emperor after he captured Florence in 1807.

 

 

Behind the Palace are the Boboli Gardens... if we'd had more time and a healthier ankle we would have explored them.  It leaves something for a future trip.