The Palatine Gallery: How residents of the Pitti Palace shaped today’s museum
The Palatine Gallery museum holds one of the most extraordinary collections of European paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries (fig.1, rooms 1–28), retaining its original arrangement conceived and executed between the end of the 18th century and 1834, when the museum was opened to the public.¹ The home of the gallery, the Pitti Palace, was successively occupied by the Medici family, the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty and the House of Savoy. Each dynasty made changes to the palace and its art collections, reflecting practical needs and evolving artistic tastes.
This essay explores how the residents of the Pitti Palace shaped the Palatine Gallery into the museum we know today. It focuses, in particular, on gallery spaces, art collections and on how these collections were presented in the gallery. Accordingly, it asks the following questions: How did the Medici, Habsburg-Lorraine, and Savoy dynasties create, alter and decorate the spaces that now comprise the Palatine Gallery museum? How did these dynasties build, maintain and expand their art collections? How did they ultimately choose to showcase their collections within the gallery spaces?
The origins: Eleonora di Toledo and Cosimo I de’ Medici
Luca Pitti (1398–1472), a Florentine banker, began construction of the Pitti Palace in the mid-15th century to demonstrate to the citizens of Florence that he could compete with the powerful Medici family. However, Pitti lost this struggle and was exiled, leaving the palace unfinished.² Hundred years later, in 1550, Eleonora di Toledo (1522–1562), wife of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519–1574), purchased the unfinished palace to improve the living conditions of the family, who could no longer fit comfortably in Palazzo della Signoria, where Cosimo, Eleonora and their eight children had lived since 1540. Palazzo della Signoria, then called ‘vecchio’ as the old home of the Medici, continued to serve as their official residence, while the Pitti Palace, maintaining the name of its first owner, was intended for the family’s private life.³
Eleonora commissioned the architect Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511–1592) to significantly enlarge and renovate the palace to reflect the high status of the Medici. Ammannati expanded the existing structure by adding two wings that enclosed a central courtyard and created a formal garden at the rear of the palace.⁴ He also designed Sala delle Nicchie inspired by Belvedere in the Vatican to house antique Roman sculptures from Cosimo’s collection.⁵
Cosimo I understood that a significant collection of ancient artworks could highlight the link between the history of Florence and the power of the Medici family, thereby further legitimising their rule in the region. When Giovanni Angelo Medici (1499–1565) became Pope Pius IV (in service 1559–1565), Cosimo got access to Roman antiquities via gifts from the Pope and purchases made during his stay in Rome. These sculptures were displayed in Sala delle Nicchie, where they were arranged both within the niches and on pedestals in between. Apart from ancient Roman sculptures, the sala contained portraits of prominent members of the Medici family, emphasising the connection between them and the culture of the ancient world.⁶ Today, Sala delle Nicchie is part of the Imperial and Royal Apartments museum adjacent to the Palatine Gallery (fig.1, room b).⁷
Decorating the palace: Ferdinando I, Cosimo II, Ferdinando II de’ Medici, and Vittoria della Rovere
During the reign of the first son of Cosimo and Eleonora, Francesco I (1541–1587), the Pitti Palace and its collections did not undergo any significant changes. A large-scale programme of decorating the palace was initiated by Francesco I’s brother and successor Ferdinando I (1549–1609), who became the first resident of the Pitti Palace. The decorations included Alessandro Allori’s fresco on the ceiling of Loggetta and the depiction of Ferdinando’s victories against the Turks by Bernardino Poccetti on the walls of Sala di Bona.⁸ Today, both rooms are part of the Tapestry Apartments (fig.1, rooms D and d).
Ferdinando I’s son, Cosimo II (1590–1621), continued decorating some rooms of his apartment, but, more importantly, inspired by the “galleries” of Blois and Fontainebleau, he conceived the first project to establish an art collection in the Pitti Palace. Cosimo II gathered artworks scattered throughout the palace and unified them in the loggia, now known as Galleria delle Statue (fig.1, room 2; fig.2). The loggia was adorned with marble figures and busts on walnut pedestals, and decorated with paintings by renowned artists such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Pollaiolo, and Andrea del Sarto.⁹ Some of these works can be seen in the Palatine Gallery today, e.g., Raphael’s La Velata, Titian’s Portrait of Pietro Aretino, and Bronsino’s Portrait of Luca Martini.¹⁰ This initial collection also included paintings by artists favoured by Cosimo II, such as Cristofano Allori, Jacopo da Empoli, Artemisia Gentileschi, Guercino and others.¹¹
In addition to the masterpieces assembled in the loggia, which would eventually form the nucleus of the modern Palatine Gallery, Cosimo II’s private apartment housed a collection of small paintings by Flemish artists, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, Paul Bril and Cornelis van Poelenburgh. These paintings reflected the taste of Cosimo II’s wife, Maria Magdalena of Austria (1589–1631), and were probably part of her dowry.¹²
During the reign of Ferdinando II (1610–1670), son of Cosimo II and Maria Magdalena, “the decoration of the piano nobile reached its completion and its triumph.”¹³ When Ferdinando II visited Rome in 1630, he was impressed by the emergent Baroque style and invited one of its key figures, Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669), to fresco the walls of Sala della Stufa with The Four Ages of Man (fig.1, room 22; fig.3), where the Golden Age was supposed to allude to the reign of the Grand Duke Ferdinando II himself.¹⁴
Soon after, Pietro da Cortona was entrusted with a grander task: to depict the glorification of the Medici family in Sale dei Pianeti (fig.1, rooms 24–28; figs.4–8). These rooms, the largest and most lavish in the Grand Ducal apartment, were named after planets in honour of Galileo Galilei: Venus, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The frescoes here were intended to show the maturation of a young Medici prince. First, in Sala di Venere the prince is surrounded by the allure of love and pleasure, a stage that he must move beyond. Then, as the prince matures, he progresses through a series of rooms representing different virtues and challenges. Sala di Apollo symbolises his patronage of the arts and laws, Sala di Marte represents his experience in war, and Sala di Giove culminates in his symbolic coronation. The final room, Sala di Saturno, depicts the prince’s apotheosis, signifying his transcendence beyond earthly concerns and his achievement of ideal rulership.¹⁵ The decorations of both Sala della Stufa and Sale dei Pianeti have been preserved since the time of Ferdinando II and can now be admired as part of the Palatine Gallery museum. Note, however, that today’s museum route through Sale dei Pianeti runs in the opposite direction, that is, from Sala di Saturno to Sala di Venere, and, thus, museum visitors read the story of the Medici prince from end to beginning.
Ferdinando II commissioned Pietro da Cortona’s lavish work in the Pitti Palace to celebrate the new era of court life following his marriage to Vittoria della Rovere (1622–1694), the last Duchess of Urbino. Vittoria brought with her a rich dowry that included a vast collection of weaponry, jewels, paintings, and miniatures, featuring masterpieces by Pietro della Francesca, Raphael and Titian. She also amassed a large collection of works by Carlo Dolci, Pietro Dandini and Juste Suttermans, as well as diverse works by Salvator Rosa, Francesco Albani, Jacopo Bassano, Paolo Veronese, Sebastiano del Piombo, and Pietro da Cortona, which the Grand Duchess displayed throughout her rooms in the Pitti Palace.¹⁶
Importantly, Vittoria established a practice of ensuring that the Medici art collections were preserved and remained intact. Upon her death, her collection was passed down to her second son, Francesco Maria (1660–1711), with the condition that it would ultimately revert to the Grand Duke and be integrated into his wardrobe, eventually becoming part of the Palatine Gallery.¹⁷
In addition to Vittoria’s collection, Ferdinando II started purchasing large paintings, many of which can be seen in the Palatine Gallery today, e.g., Assunta Passerini by Andrea del Sarto, Baptism of Christ by Veronese, Adoration of the Magi by Christofano Allori.¹⁸ Ferdinando II’s collection extended beyond religious themes, encompassing family portraits by Juste Suttermans and Pourbus Giovane, genre paintings by Giovanni da San Giovanni and Salvator Rosa, and works exploring mythological narratives by Guercino and Empoli.¹⁹
Family of collectors: Cardinal Leopoldo, Cardinal Giancarlo, Prince Ferdinando, and Cosimo III de’ Medici
During and after the reign of Ferdinando II, the Medici art collections were greatly enlarged by Ferdinando’s brothers, Cardinal Leopoldo (1617–1675) and Cardinal Giancarlo (1611–1663), and by his grandson, Grand Prince Ferdinando (1663–1713). Cardinal Leopoldo initiated the trend of personal art collections within the Pitti Palace. Residing in a fourteen-room apartment on the second floor of the right wing of the palace, Leopoldo meticulously arranged his collection, which included paintings, drawings, prints, porcelain, miniatures, antique sculptures, cameos, clocks, and shells. Notably, his collection of artist self-portraits, along with the collection of drawings and prints, was transferred to the Uffizi at the end of the 17th century by his nephew Grand Duke Cosimo III (1642–1723).²⁰
Cardinal Leopoldo’s salone dei quadri, the central room of his apartment, was intended to house a collection of approximately one hundred paintings reflecting his passion for Venetian art. Notable Venetian works included The Concert by Titian, Portrait of a Man by Veronese, Madonna with Child by Tintoretto, Portrait of a Venetian Senator by Bonifaccio Veronese, and Parable of the Sower by Jacopo Bassano.²¹
Cardinal Leopoldo was also interested in Emilian artists such as Dosso Dossi, Garofalo, Mazzolino, Guercino, and Guido Reni. Lesser-known artists, such as Pieter van Laer, known as Bamboccio, and Dutch still-life painters Otto Marseus van Schrieck and Willem van Aelst, also attracted cardinal’s attention. In addition, he managed to acquire Raphael’s Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami and received two pieces by prominent 17th-century painters as gifts from admirers: Caravaggio’s Sleeping Cupid and Rubens’ Three Graces.²² All of the above-mentioned paintings are now part of the Palatine Gallery museum.
Another brother of Ferdinando II, Cardinal Giancarlo, was also an art collector. He lived in Rome for a few years and had a small apartment in the Pitti Palace. Giancarlo’s collection did not have the same systematic value as Leopoldo’s and seemed to have been primarily for decorating his residences. It included many paintings by the Neapolitan Salvator Rosa, some of which were later moved to the Pitti Palace by Cosimo III. Rosa’s two large seascapes, Harbour scene and Harbour with lighthouse and ships, are now shown in Sala di Venere (fig.9).²³
Upon the death of Cardinal Giancarlo and Cardinal Leopoldo, a substantial portion of their paintings was inherited by Grand Prince Ferdinando, their great-nephew and the eldest son of Grand Duke Cosimo III. Ferdinando amassed a vast collection of nearly a thousand paintings, which included large altarpieces from the 16th and 17th centuries acquired from various churches and convents both within and outside Tuscany.²⁴ Prince Ferdinando’s notable acquisitions, which are now in the Palatine Gallery, included Fra’ Bartolomeo’s Holy Conversation from the church of San Marco and Raphael’s Madonna del Baldacchino from Pescia Cathedral. Ferdinando also acquired Francesco Bassano’s Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, Orazio Riminaldi’s Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia and Cigoli’s Deposition. In addition to these altarpieces, Ferdinando managed to purchase such notable artworks as The Consequences of War by Runbens and The Three Ages of Man attributed to Giorgione.²⁵
Prince Ferdinando placed large altarpieces in his apartment in the Pitti Palace, presently known as the Imperial and Royal Apartments, while the remaining spaces were skilfully filled with rows of paintings of varying sizes. The arrangement of artworks, with paintings displayed in pairs or groups of four, was designed to create a striking decorative effect. To ensure a symmetrical and visually appealing display, Ferdinando used exquisitely carved and gilded frames. The resulting arrangement served as a model for those who later organised the Palatine Gallery under the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty (see next section).²⁶
When Ferdinando died in 1713, his art collection was added to the collection of his father, Grand Duke Cosimo III, who already inherited a large amount of artworks from his father, Ferdinando II, his mother, Vittoria della Rovere, and his uncles, Giancarlo and Leopoldo. Most importantly, Cosimo III made significant changes to the display of art in the Pitti Palace. He moved many paintings from Prince Ferdinando’s apartment into the grand ducal apartment, not only into the rooms painted by Pietro da Cortona but also into private rooms at the back of the palace. For instance, his bedroom contained sacred paintings by Dolci, Mancini, Ribera, Gabbiani, and Fra’ Ippolito Cappuccino, most of which can still be found today in the very rooms where Cosimo III placed them. The highlight of the new arrangement was Raphael’s Madonna della seggiola, which Cosimo III removed from the Tribuna of the Uffizi in 1698 and placed in Ferdinando’s alcove.²⁷
Moreover, Cosimo III was an art collector himself. He travelled extensively throughout Europe, visiting the Netherlands, England, Spain, Portugal, France, and Germany. His travels provided Florence with one of the most important collections of Flemish and Dutch paintings in Italy. Cosimo III also brought examples of English art to Florence due to his long-standing relationship with the court of St. James’s Palace. After his father, Ferdinando II, died, Cosimo III became Grand Duke and was no longer able to travel as frequently. Rome became one of his favourite destinations, primarily for religious reasons. Nonetheless, he continued to expand his collections of Flemish and Dutch art, and he sought portraits of famous people to add to the already substantial family collections.²⁸
The birth of the Palatine Gallery: Peter Leopold and Ferdinand III of Habsburg-Lorraine
Upon the death of the last Medicean Grand Duke, Gian Gastone (1671–1737), son of Cosimo III, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany passed to Francis Stephen of Lorraine (1708–1765), husband of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria (1717–1780). While Francis Stephen briefly visited Tuscany for a few months in 1739, the imperial couple mainly resided in Vienna. The arrival of Peter Leopold (1747–1792), the second son of Francis Stephen and Maria Theresa, marked a significant shift in the life of the Grand Duchy, including the Pitti Palace. Notably, Peter Leopold chose to reside in the right wing of the main floor of the palace, which was previously occupied by Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici. This wing was redesigned in a Neoclassical style with the addition of elegant stucco decoration on the ceilings and the use of pastel-coloured silk on the walls, reflecting the preferences of the new occupants.²⁹
Due to Peter Leopold’s decision to move the grand ducal apartment to a different part of the palace, the prestigious rooms of the left wing, decorated by Pietro da Cortona (hence, known as Quartiere di Pietro da Cortona) were left vacant and available for other uses. These rooms became the home for masterpieces from the Medici collections that had been scattered throughout the palace. Artworks were moved from various areas, particularly from the apartment of Prince Ferdinando. The arrangement of paintings in Quartiere di Pietro da Cortona emulated the display style of the prince’s apartment, with paintings hung in dense rows, that covered the walls entirely, and organised based on strict symmetries of size and frames, known as a salon hang or quadreria (see, e.g., figs.9–10).³⁰ This marked the birth of the Palatine Gallery.
In the time of Peter Leopold, Sale dei Pianeti already housed such masterpieces as The Four Philosophers and The Consequences of War by Rubens displayed alongside Andrea del Sarto’s Stories of Joseph, a grouping that would later define Sala di Marte. Other notable works already present in Sale dei Pianeti at that time were Raphael’s Madonna della Seggiola, Madonna dell’Impannata, Madonna del Baldacchino, and the portraits of Inghirami and Bibbiena. Paintings by Guido Reni, Carlo Dolci, Guercino, Titian, Giorgione, del Sarto, Fra’ Bartolomeo, and Rosso Fiorentino were all hung on the walls in sequences that remained largely unchanged, reflecting the gradual formation of the quadreria.³¹
When Napoleon’s troops entered Florence in 1799, they looted 63 masterpieces from Quartiere di Pietro da Cortona for Musée Napoleon leaving behind empty frames. The stolen masterpieces included works by Salvator Rosa, Rubens, Titian, Raphael, and Andrea del Sarto. During the Kingdom of Etruria (1801–1807), attempts were made to fill the void by using paintings from the Vasari Corridor and the villas of Castello and Petraia. Elisa Bonaparte (1777–1820), Grand Duchess of Tuscany (in service 1809–1814), chose to utilise the emptied rooms to create imperial apartments for Napoleon and his wife. However, the fall of the Napoleonic Empire in 1815 halted the project and resulted in the return of the 63 masterpieces to the Pitti Palace.³²
During Napoleon’s intervention, Grand Duke Ferdinand III (1769–1824), son of Peter Leopold, was in exile in Austria. Upon his return to Florence in 1815, Ferdinand III immediately set about restoring the Florentine art collections. Throughout these efforts, he maintained the Baroque aesthetic favoured by Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, emphasising lavish frames and symmetrical arrangements of artworks.³³ Ferdinand III also enlarged existing collections with new acquisitions, e.g., Madonna del Granduca by Raphael and Madonna del rosario by Murillo, and added altarpieces removed from suppressed churches and convents in Tuscany, like Pala di Poppi by Andrea del Sarto.³⁴
Ferdinand III also continued decorating the Pitti Palace. He entrusted the decoration to the same artists previously employed by Elisa Bonaparte. However, the themes were changed from those alluding to Napoleon’s glories to themes alluding to the return of the Grand Duke in Sala di Ulisse by Gaspare Martellini (fig.1, room 19; fig.11) and the restoration and glorification of the Habsburgs in Sala di Ercole by Pietro Benvenuti (fig.1, room 6; fig.13) and in Sala della musica by Luigi Ademollo (fig.1, room 12; fig.14). Ferdinand III also commissioned Luigi Sabatelli to decorate the former Sala dei Novissimi with scenes from Homer’s poem and, subsequently, renamed this space to Sala dell’Iliade (fig.1, room 23; fig.12).³⁵
Thanks to Peter Leopold and Ferdinand III, the Palatine Gallery acquired most of its characteristic features that we can admire today. It officially opened to the public in 1834 by permission of the Grand Duke Leopold II of Habsburg-Lorraine (1835–1909), showing 497 paintings. While the grander front rooms maintained the late Baroque aesthetic favoured by Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici, the smaller rooms at the back displayed a Neoclassical style preferred by the Habsburg-Lorraine (e.g., Sala di Ulisse, Sala di Ercole and Sala della musica, figs.11–13).³⁶
Conclusion
The story of how residents of the Pitti Palace shaped today’s Palatine Gallery museum ends with Ferdinand III of Habsburg-Lorraine and includes a number of key figures. It started with Eleonora di Toledo purchasing and enlarging the palace in the mid-16th century. Then, Eleonora’s grandson, Cosimo II, assembled the first art gallery in the space now known as Galleria delle Statue. Cosimo II’s son, Ferdinando II, commissioned Pietro da Cortona lavish Baroque decorations in Sale dei Pianeti and married Vittoria della Rovere who brought with her an immense art collection as a dowry. The Medici collections were further enlarged by Ferdinando II’s brothers, Cardinal Leopoldo and Cardinal Giancarlo, and by his grandson, Prince Ferdinando. Importantly, the latter also established a model for the arrangement of paintings in the Pitti Palace, following the aesthetic principles of a salon hang or quadreria. Ferdinando II’s son, Cosimo III, brought the collections of his predecessors together and enlarged them even further, distributing artworks between the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi. After the extinction of the Medici family, Peter Leopold of Habsburg-Lorraine moved his apartment away from Quartiere di Pietro da Cortona and used this grand space to bring together paintings scattered throughout the palace, and especially from the Prince Ferdinando’s apartment, adhering to the original Baroque arrangement of artworks. This effort was continued by Peter Leopold’s son, Ferdinand III, who recovered paintings looted by Napoleon’s troops and finished decorating the palace in a Neoclassical style. The Palatine Gallery was opened to the public in 1834, ten years after Ferdinand III’s death.
After 1834, the most significant changes to the Palatine Gallery occurred, when, along with the Pitti Palace, it was transferred to the Italian state in 1919. As a result, between 1920 and 1930, the museum was stripped of significant works, which were moved to fill gaps in the Uffizi collection as part of its elevation to a national gallery. In return, the Uffizi transferred paintings to the Palatine Gallery that no longer fit within its new exhibition arrangement. These works, primarily from 17th-century Florence, Holland, and Flanders, enriched the collection historically and artistically, but also distorted its original structure.³⁷ The last change to the Palatine Gallery, affecting mostly its governance, occurred in 2014, when the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi were unified under one name of the Uffizi Galleries.³⁸
“The complex history of the Palatine Gallery ends here: in the sense that the commitment of those in charge cannot in this case follow the needs of culture and taste by updating the museum presentation, but intends instead to concentrate on the restoration, as far as possible, of the Lorraine arrangement of 1834, which not only made an intelligent and refined display choice of the masterpieces belonging to the artistic heritage of the Pitti Palace, but which also constitutes a precious historical document from the point of view of museology.”³⁹
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² Adriano Marinazzo, ‘Palazzo Pitti: Dalla ‘casa vecchia” alla reggia granducale’, Bollettino Società di Studi Fiorentini 22 (Florence 2013) pp. 299–306, spec. p. 300; Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti, ’VI. Palazzo Pitti’, Court historian 2:3 (London 1997), pp. 13–20, spec. p. 13.
³ Marinazzo 2013, pp. 300, 306; Kirsten 1997, p. 13; Sergio Bertelli, ’Palazzo Pitti dai Medici ai Savoia’, La Corte di Toscana dai Medici ai Lorena (Rome 2002) pp. 11–109, spec. pp. 12–13.
⁴ Marinazzo 2013, pp. 300, 306; Kirsten 1997, p. 13.
⁵ Andrea Maria Galdy, ‘Spectacular antiquities: Power and display of anticaglie at the court of Cosimo I de’ Medici’, Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme 29:1 (2005), pp. 45–57, spec. p. 51.
⁶ Marco Chiarini, ‘Le collezioni dei Medici a Palazzo Pitti’, La Galleria Palatina e gli appartamenti reali di Palazzo Pitti (Florence 2003), pp. 15–31, spec. p. 15; Galdy 2005, pp. 49–52; Bertelli 2002, pp. 15, 65–70.
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⁹ Bertelli 2002, pp. 16–17; Padovani 2002, p. 243.
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¹¹ Chiarini 2003, pp. 15–17.
¹² Chiarini 2003, p. 17.
¹³ Padovani 2002, p. 245, translated from Italian: “Con Ferdinando II (1621–1670), la decorazione del piano nobile ha il suo compimento ed il suo trionfo.”
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¹⁶ Padovani 2002, p. 246; Chiarini 2003, p. 20.
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²² Chiarini 2003, pp. 21–22; Uffizi Galleries official website, ‘Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami, known as “Phaedra”’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/fedra-portrait-raphael, accessed 22–11–2024; Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali, ‘Amorino dormiente’, https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900195370, ‘Le tre Grazie’, https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900129514
²³ Chiarini 2003, p. 22; Uffizi Galleries official website, ‘Harbour scene’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/salvator-rosa-harbour-scene, ‘Harbour with lighthouse and ships’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/salvator-rosa-lighthouse, accessed 23–11–2024.
²⁴ Padovani 2002, p. 246; Padovani 2003, p. 23.
²⁵ Padovani 2003, pp. 25–26; Uffizi Galleries official website, ‘Holy Conversation’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/holy-conversation-fra-bartolomeo, ‘Madonna del Baldacchino’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/madonna-con-bambino-in-trono-e-i-santi-pietro-bernardo-agostino-e-ranieri-detta-m, ‘Martyrdom of St. Cecilia’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/martyrdom-of-st-cecilia, ‘The Consequences of War’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/video/the-consequences-of-war-by-pieter-paul-rubens, accessed 23–11–2024; Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali, ‘Martirio di Santa Caterina d’Alessandria’, https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900035162, ‘Deposizione di Cristo dalla croce’, https://catalogo.cultura.gov.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900021931, ‘Tre età dell’uomo’, https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900297809, accessed 23–11–2024.
²⁶ Padovani 2002, p. 246; Padovani 2003, pp. 23, 26.
²⁷ Padovani 2002, p. 247; Padovani 2003, pp. 28–29; Uffizi Galleries official website, ‘Madonna and Child with St. John’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/la-madonna-col-bambino-e-san-giovannino-detta-madonna-della-seggiola, accessed 24–11–2024.
²⁸ Padovani 2003, pp. 27–28.
²⁹ Serena Padovani, ‘La storia della Galleria Palatina’, La Galleria Palatina e gli appartamenti reali di Palazzo Pitti (Florence 2003), pp. 33–64, spec. pp. 35–36; Padovani 2002, pp. 247–248.
³⁰ Padovani 2002, p. 248; Padovani 2003, p. 35.
³¹ Padovani 2003, p. 36; Uffizi Galleries official website, ‘Madonna dell’Impannata’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/madonna-col-bambino-e-i-santi-elisabetta-maddalena-e-giovanni-battista-detta-mado, ‘Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/cardinal-bibbiena-raphael, accessed 26–11–2024; Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali, ‘I quattro filosofi’, https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900129505, ‘Storie dell’infanzia di Giuseppe’, https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900228552, accessed 26–11–2024.
³² Padovani 2003, pp. 38–40; Padovani 2002, pp. 248, 255.
³³ Padovani 2003, p. 42; palazzo-pitti.net.
³⁴ Padovani 2002, p. 258; Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali, ‘Madonna del Rosario’, https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900745832, ‘Pala di Poppi’, https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0900228543, accessed 24–1–2024; Uffizi Galleries official website, ‘Madonna del Granduca’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/madonna-del-granduca, accessed 24–1–2024.
³⁵ Padovani 2002, p. 255; palazzo-pitti.net, ‘Ulysses Room’, https://www.palazzo-pitti.net/theulyssesroom.html, ‘Music Room’, https://www.palazzo-pitti.net/the-music-room.html, ‘Iliad Room’, https://www.palazzo-pitti.net/thelliadroom.html, accessed 25–11–2024; Uffizi Galleries official website, ‘Hercules Room’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/hercules-room, accessed 24–1–2024.
³⁶ Padovani 2003, p. 33; Padovani 2002, pp. 258–260.
³⁷ Padovani 2002, p. 261.
³⁸ Uffizi Galleries official website, ‘About us’, https://www.uffizi.it/en/pages/about-us, accessed 25–11–2024.
³⁹ Padovani 2002, p. 261, translated from Italian: “La storia complessa della Galleria Palatina finisce qui: nel senso che l’impegno dei responsabili non può in questo caso seguire le esigenze della cultura e del gusto aggiornando la presentazione museale, ma intende invece concentrarsi sul ripristino, per quanto possibile, dell’allestimento lorenese del 1834, che non solo operò una scelta espositiva intelligente e raffinata dei capolavori appartenenti al patrimonio artistico di Palazzo Pitti, ma che costituisce anche un prezioso documento storico dal punto di vista della museologia.”
