Savoy, Medici and Lorraine: three dynasties told through their furniture

The best of the best of royal furniture of three centuries, from Sixteenth century all’ Nineteenth century told through the evolution of furnishing styles of three dynasties, Medici, Lorraine e Savoy and concentrated in an exhibition selection of 16 real ones furniture masterpieces which at the same time outline the cultural history of the Palace.

The Hall of Niches from the Palatine Gallery on the first floor of the former sovereign residence of Pitti Palaceis now a true anthology of royal furniture. Apparel armchairsvases from the manufacture of Sevresothers imported from China, the legendary foldable mechanical desk by Giovanni Socci, a prie-dieu studded with precious pieces by Leonardo van der Vinne and a singular cabinet that perfectly reproduces Palazzo Pitti in scale speak to visitors, with their own shapes and decorations, of how the tastes and ‘domestic’ aesthetics of the sovereigns changed over time.

Furnishings from the Renaissance to Savoy eclecticism

A real initiation to movable assets e di arti decorative of the Palace, or the discovery of a collection of the kind almost unknown, yet among the most important in Europe. Very little remains today of the Renaissance furnishings at Pitti; but from Baroque until Neoclassical eighteenth century e all’Savoy eclecticismthere are thousands of testimonies. Among the objects on display in the Hall of Niches you can admire the virtuosic seventeenth-century works ofcabinet making e di “clerk“, that is, of semi-precious stone inlays get out of Grand Ducal Workshops of the Uffizi.

With the advent of Lorrainecourt taste also became uniform in mobilioto the new ones European stylesabandoning decorative exuberance baroque in favor of the lightness of oriental lacquers and sinuous-shaped furnishings. With Ferdinand III the transformation of some Pitti environments took place according to the dictates of neoclassical style; under French domination Elisa BaciocchiNapoleon’s sister, refurnished some of the rooms of the palace with wooden furniture Empire style. Style that, during the Restorationwas also adopted by Ferdinand III and his son Leopoldo II for the completion of the internal decorations of the palace, adapting the severe lines of the furnishings to the various ones stylistic revivals brought back into fashion by nineteenth-century aesthetes, according to an appreciated taste, after theUnification of Italycome on too Savoy.

The aesthetic rebirth with the Savoys and the heritage of the Quirinale

Right with i Savoy there was one last one aesthetic rebirth of the Palace. Stripping of furniture and furnishings other sovereign seats of the pre-unification states that merged into Kingdom of Italy (Lucca, Milan, but also Colorno and Parma where in the mid-18th century the daughter of Louis eclecticism based on the synthesis of the “manners” of the past, obtained with a casual mixture of old and new pieces. This last dynastic episode, which made Pitti a true testing ground forfurnishings of the Quirinaleconcludes the review of the room, recalling that many furnishings of the Florentine palacegiven to the crown, then passed to Quirinale definitively becoming part of the heritage of the Presidency of the Republic.

According to the director of Uffizi Galleries Simone Verde: “This section was one of the projects presented in the weeks of the settlement. It is a contribution first and foremost to legibility of the palace for the benefit of visitors. Who, once they have crossed this space, will be able to look more carefully at the movable assets of the rooms they will pass through. Starting with real apartments reopened for a year now. Then, it is a recognition of all those who have worked for decades – and I am thinking of Enrico Colle as well as Alvar Gonzales Palacios – on the necessary rediscovery of this creative world in no way inferior to other forms of artistic invention as unjustly established by academic hierarchies fortunately dead and buried. Finally, telling the history of the Palace through these furnishings, it is produced spontaneously, in line with the contemporary critical sensitivitya social history of art“.

Work in progress and new entrances to Palazzo Pitti

In the former palace, meanwhile, work is in full swing as never before. In addition to the restoration of the Hall of Niches which houses the selection of the royal furniture, the lighting, again in the Palatine Gallery, of the Green Hall, the Music Hall and the Queen’s Hall has been rethought and updated; not only that, the floor of the White Room was completely restored (where a stucco restoration project is also starting), the old bookshop was freed and the Vestibule of the Palatine Gallery was restored together with the staircase leading to the floor, and finally the tender was launched for the creation of a new entrance system for visitors to the Pitti Palace.