1597 circa - Ferdinando I transfers the court to Palazzo Pitti 
- Event:
- Ferdinando I transfers the court to Palazzo Pitti
- Protagonists :
- Ferdinando I de’ Medici
- Epoch, date:
-
circa 1597
- Places:
- Florence
- Description and history :
-
One of the registers of the “Guardaroba” of Palazzo Pitti dating to 1597 offers the first detailed description - known to date - of the organisation of the Medici palace, also recording the arrangement of the different apartments and how they were assigned to the various members of the Medici family, their courtiers and servants. This inventory thus records the accomplishment of the transfer of the Medici court to the Pitti palace, following the complete renovation of the residence and the immense garden.
For years, while the works of enlargement and renovation were being carried out under the direction of Bartolomeo Ammannati, Palazzo Pitti had been utilised primarily for purposes of reception, to welcome illustrious guests in magnificent surroundings. The Medici dwelt here in their private apartments only for limited periods and on special occasions.
On 1 July 1568 Cosimo I gave Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli gardens to his son Francesco I, to whom moreover the Duke of Florence had by then almost completely delegated his role as monarch.
As soon as he received the title of Grand Duke from Pope Pius V, Cosimo began to stay in Palazzo Pitti during the brief periods when he was in Florence, alternated with his longer sojourns in Pisa and the suburban villas. Cosimo breathed his last in the new palace on 9 April 1574. Francesco, on the other hand - apart from a few exceptional cases - continued to prefer Palazzo Vecchio, even after he had received the important confirmation of the title of Grand Duke from the Emperor Maximilian II in 1576.
It was Ferdinando I, brother of Francesco and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587, who decided to definitively transfer the court to Palazzo Pitti. Already on the occasion of his marriage to Christine of Lorraine in 1589 the palazzo had been the chosen backdrop for the magnificent festivities, flaunting all its impressive celebratory potential.
The lunette executed by Giusto Utens around the time of the inventory of 1597 (1599-1602) offers a figurative illustration of the exterior of the palazzo and the garden, with the terminal section of the Vasarian corridor at the bottom and the Forte di Belvedere perched on the hilltop.
In the interior of Palazzo Pitti (Facchinetti 2000, figs. p. 35), the grand ducal couple Ferdinando I and Christine of Lorraine spent the winter months on the first floor of the north wing: Ferdinando occupied the first three rooms on the facade, and Christine the next rooms along the courtyard, connected with those of her consort by a corridor. The south wing of the palazzo comprised a large area destined to accommodate “Cardinals and foreign Princes”. From this section the palazzo was linked via a closed bridge to a small external edifice which was built to house the kitchens at the time of the transfer of the Medici court.
In the summer the Grand Duke moved to the ground floor, to the rooms to the left of the entrance. Also on the ground floor, in the south wing, lived Don Giovanni de’ Medici, son of Cosimo I and Eleonora degli Albizi.
On the second floor, the north wing contained the apartments of the princes and princesses, including the heir to the throne, the future Cosimo II. Maria, the daughter of Francesco and Joanna of Austria, already betrothed to Henry IV of France, resided in a particularly splendid apartment situated in the centre of the facade overlooking the square. The southern wing of the second floor also housed the rooms assigned to Don Antonio, son of Francesco I and Bianca Cappello, adjacent to the Salone delle Commedie (a large chamber occupied by the Grooms’ Chamber, the small Ballroom and the Music Room).
Among the numerous courtiers who resided in the Pitti Palace were Lorenzo Usimbardi, inspector of the manufactories, Emilio de’ Cavalieri, the court musician, Flavia Peretti Damasceni, Duchess of Bracciano and her husband Don Virgilio Orsini, son of Isabella de’ Medici.
informazioni generali - apparati e documentazione
