Mei 4: Palazzo Pitti - Giardini di Boboli (ook 17 April)

Donderdag 4 Mei:  Vanmorgen grondig mijn appartement gepoetst en bed opgemaakt voor Mieke, die zaterdag zal aankomen.

Na mijn lunch (tagliatelle con ragù) wandel ik door mijn gekende omgeving nogmaals naar de 

Piazza de Pitti om ditmaal het Palazzo Pitti te bezoeken.

Met mijn gidsenkaart kan ik de files voorbij en gratis binnen.

Purchased in 1550, the Palace was chosen by Cosimo I de’ Medici and his wife Eleanor of Toledo as the new Grand Ducal residence, and it soon became the new symbol of the Medici’s power over Tuscany. It also housed the Court of other two dynasties: the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (which succeeded the Medici from 1737) and the Kings of Italy from the House of Savoy, who inhabited it from 1865. Nonetheless the palace still bears the name of its first owner, the Florentine banker Luca Pitti that in the mid-1400s started its construction – maybe after a design by Brunelleschi – at the foot of the Boboli hill beyond the Arno River.

Today the Palace is divided into four museums: the Treasury of the Grand Dukes on the ground floor, the Palatine Gallery and the Imperial and Royal Apartments on the first floor, the Gallery of Modern Art and the Museum of Costume and Fashion on the second floor.

The Imperial and Royal Apartments occupy the fourteen ceremonial rooms on the first floor, situated in the South wing of Pitti Palace. At the beginning of the 18th century the private apartments were occupied by Grand Prince of Tuscany Ferdinando de’ Medici; then, between the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, they were renovated and altered by the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine. From 1865 the sovereigns of the Royal House of Savoy (hence the name) lived there during the short period in which Florence was the capital of Italy, leaving the distinctive stamp of their taste on the general appearance of the Royal and Imperial Apartments, which is still visible today. Sumptuously furnished with pieces from the collections of the Medici, Habsburg-Lorraine and House of Savoy, they bear traces of the changing dynasties.

Throne Room

Kapel

Salotto della Regina

The Kings bedroom

The Gallery of Modern Art is located in the rooms once inhabited by the Habsburg-Lorraine family on the second floor of Pitti Palace, from which there is a magnificent view over Florence and the Boboli Gardens. Its collections of paintings and sculptures, ranging from the end of the 18th century until the first decades of the 20th century, are still being added to through donations and purchases. Once inhabited by the Grand Dukes of Habsburg-Lorraine, these sumptuous rooms host Neoclassical and Romantic artworks and numerous important paintings by the Macchiaioli school, mainly from Diego Martelli’s collection. There is indeed a considerable number of historical paintings in the Gallery, including the well-known landscapes of the Maremma area by Giovanni Fattori, leading artist of the Macchiaioli movement. The 19th-century itinerary concludes with works of Symbolist and Divionist movements. Among the various painters on display: F. Hayez, S. Lega, T. Signorini, G. Fattori, C. Pissarro, M. Rosso, G. Boldini, P. Nomellini.

Tito Conti (1942-1924)  "Autoritratto"

Formerly known as the Silver Museum, the Treasury of the Grand Dukes is located on the ground and mezzanine floors of Pitti Palace, and comprises the rooms that were once the summer apartments of the Medici family. Its walls, entirely frescoed on the occasion of the wedding between Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de’Medici and Vittoria della Rovere (1637), are one of the first examples of quadrature and trompe-l’oeil perspective in Florence. It houses the precious “Medici’s Treasure”: semi-precious stone vases, rock crystals, ambers and ivories. The silverware comes from the “Treasure of Salzburg” - the collections of the Bishops of Salzburg - and was brought to Florence by Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand III of Habsburg-Lorraine. The Museum also houses an important collection of jewellery realized between the 17th and 20th centuries and has a large section dedicated to contemporary jewellery.

Ik het moet door de tuinen wandelen naar het Museo della Porcellane

Augsburg Hausmalerei (1725-1740)

Op de weg naar buiten, loop ik nog een deel van de tuinen war ik de eerste dagen van mijn verblijf was.

The Buontalenti Grotto (also called  "Grotta Grande" in Italian) in Boboli Gardens is an artificial grotto designed by Bernardo Buontalenti and built between 1583 and 1593 ca. at the end of the Vasari Corridor on commission from Grand Duke Francesco I de’ Medici. It is one of the most spectacular and captivating places in Boboli Gardens, a real fairy-tale treasure chest, originally embellished by water features, and finely decorated with mother-of-pearl, shells, artificial stalactites and stones which frame frescoes and seem to confine beautiful and twisted body sculptures by famous Renaissance artists like Baccio Bandinelli or Giambologna portrayed in their effort to come out of the walls, in a sort of birth out of the elements like earth and water.