Opening hours: 8,15AM-6,50PM. Closed on Monday
Admission ticket: Euro 8,50. Ticket is valid also for the entrance to the Modern Art Gallery.
The Palatine Gallery shows a collection of over 1000 paintings: among them are several masterpieces of Florentine Renaissance and Mannerism and of European art.
The Royal Apartments include the rooms used by Medici, Lorraine and Savoy for court receptions: these rooms are enriched with important artworks.
History
Around 1620 Cosimo II de' Medici constituted the collection of artworks of Palazzo Pitti, and all Dukes of the Medici and Lorraine families after him enriched the gallery with new paintings and artworks; until 1828 the collection was a private one, but in that year Leopoldo I of Lorraine opened to visitors the «Gallery of the Palace» (hence the name «Palatine Gallery»).
In the gallery are collected paintings and sculptures bought or inherited by the ruling families, such as the paintings by Raphael and Titian: they came to Florence at the end of 17th Century, after the death of the last Duchess of Urbino, Vittoria della Rovere, wife of Ferdinando II de' Medici.
The Palatine Gallery is located in the rooms once belonging to the Medici apartments, and mantained the original disposition of the artworks: they are sorted neither by period nor by style, but by chance or by the size of the paintings (the bigger paintings, for example, are all located in the vast rooms towards the façade). This is due to the fact that the gallery was conceived without any scientific or historical purposes, but only as a large collection of masterpieces.
In the spotlight
The Palatine Gallery counts 28 rooms named after the subject or the author of the frescoes and decorations. Among the various works we can mention the following ones:
Room of Castagnoli: it is named after the author of the frescoes on the ceiling. In this room are exposed Portraits of the Medici and Lorraine and the Table of the Muses, a stone-inlayed table realized by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure between 1837 and 1851;
In the Room of the Ark is a Painting by Giovan Battista Caracciolo (17th Century); the ceiling was frescoed in 1816 by Luigi Ademollo with Noah entering Jerusalem with the Ark;
Room of Psyche: named after the subject of the frescoes on the ceiling, by Giuseppe Collignon (1776-1863); here are to be seen Paintings by Salvator Rosa from the period 1640-1650;
Hall of Poccetti: for a long time the frescoes on the vault have been ascribed to Bernardino Poccetti, but they are now have been identified as a work by Matteo Rosselli (1578-1650). In the centre of the hall is a Table (1716) commissioned by Cosimo III. In the hall are furthermore exposed some Paintings (16th-17th Century), including works by Rubens and Pontormo;
Room of Prometheus: the room is named after the subject of the frescoes by Giuseppe Collignon (19th Century) and contains a large collection of round-shaped paintings: among them is the Madonna with the Child by Filippino Lippi (15th Century), Two Portraits by Botticelli and Paintings by Pontormo and Domenico Beccafumi (16th Century).
In the Room of Justice, represented in the frescoes by Antonio Fedi (1771-1843), are exposed Portraits (16th Century) by Titian, Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese;
Room of Ulysses, frescoed in 1815 by Gaspare Martellini, contains a collection of Early works by Filippino Lippi and Paintings by Raphael;
In the Room of Iliad are exposed two important works by Andrea del Sarto (around 1520): the Madonna of the Family Panciatichi and the Madonna Passerini. Here are also Paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi (17th Century);
Room of Saturn: it contains various works by Raphael, among them the Portrait of Agnolo Doni (1506), the famous Madonna of the chair and the Portrait of Cardinal Inghirami (both painted in 1516). In the room are also to be seen the Annunciation by Andrea del Sarto (1528) and Jesus and the Evangelist by Fra' Bartolomeo (1516);
In the Room of Jupiter is the Veiled Lady, the famous portait by Raphael (1516) that, according to Vasari, represents the woman loved by the artist. Among the other works in the room, Paintings by Rubens, Andrea del Sarto and Perugino;
The Room of Mars is characterized by works by Rubens: the allegories representing the Consequences of War (hence the name of the room) and the Four Philosophers (among them Rubens portayed himself, on the left). On the vault is a fresco by Pietro da Cortona, Triumph of the Medici;
The Room of Apollo contains a masterpiece by Rosso Fiorentino, the Madonna with Saints (1522) from the Church of Santo Spirito, and two paintings by Titian, the Magdalena and the Portrait of an English Noblesman (between 1530 and 1540);
In the Room of Venus is the Venere Italica, statue by Antonio Canova commissioned by Napoleon (1810). On the walls we can see the Landscapes by Salvator Rosa, painted by the Neapolitan artist in the years he was at the Court of the Medici (1640-49), and four paintings by Titian, dating to the years 1510-1545. Among them, the Portrait of pope Julius II (1545) and La Bella (1535);
The White Hall, once dancing hall of the palace, is characterized by the white decorations and is often used for temporary exhibitions.
The Royal Apartments include 14 rooms. Their decoration has been changed to Empire style by the Savoy, but there are still some rooms mantaining decorations and furniture from the age of the Medici.
In the Green Room, frescoed by Giuseppe Castagnoli in early 19th Century, are exposed an Intarsia Cabinet from the 17th Century and a Collection of Gilded Bronzes;
The Throne Room was decorated for King Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy and is characterized by the red brocate on the walls and by the Japanese and Chinese Vases (17th-18th Century);
In the Blue Room are collected Furniture (17th-18th Century) and the Portraits of members of the Medici Family painted by Justus Sustermans (1597-1681).
