Palazzo Pitti
Title
Palazzo Pitti
Description
If the Florence Cathedral is symbolic of the religious architecture of the early Renaissance, then the facade of the Palazzo Pitti, also built by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi, is its secular counterpart. Initially commissioned by a banker and then sold to the powerful Medici family, the palace, which was built starting in 1440 and has been continually expanded over the past half-millennium, has on its face an archetypical example of Renaissance design.
The towering facade of the Palazzo Pitti consists of three tiered series of arches that run the length of the building, each tier receding slightly behind the one below. The immediate impression that this creates is that of similarity to a Roman aqueduct; this is intentional. Almost every component of the design is intended to remind the viewer of classical architecture. The windows of the first floor are topped with pediments in the style of Greek or Roman temples, the stone is rusticated (i.e. roughened) in the Roman fashion, and the arches are composed of thin plates of rusticated stone arranged in imitation of Roman arches. To view the Palazzo Pitti from the front is to be confronted by an intimidatingly solid, rough, and altogether imposing structure rendered nonetheless elegant by its many windows and the high arches which contain them. This combination of power and grace, while certainly slightly Machiavellian, was also exactly what the people of the classical world were presumed to have possessed by the humanist thinkers whose writing spurred the Renaissance. As such, the Palazzo Pitti (or at least its facade) can be seen as an enactment of the humanist vision of a reestablished classical aesthetic. Vasari describes the Palazzo Pitti as both “ambitious and magnificent” (Vasari, 91), and he’s correct to: this palace is a bold statement, a private citizen declaring that he shared the qualities of the revered ancients. This, like the Florence Cathedral, is one of the first examples of wealthy, powerful people in the Renaissance era cementing their status through association with the new humanist project and the respected classical world.
The towering facade of the Palazzo Pitti consists of three tiered series of arches that run the length of the building, each tier receding slightly behind the one below. The immediate impression that this creates is that of similarity to a Roman aqueduct; this is intentional. Almost every component of the design is intended to remind the viewer of classical architecture. The windows of the first floor are topped with pediments in the style of Greek or Roman temples, the stone is rusticated (i.e. roughened) in the Roman fashion, and the arches are composed of thin plates of rusticated stone arranged in imitation of Roman arches. To view the Palazzo Pitti from the front is to be confronted by an intimidatingly solid, rough, and altogether imposing structure rendered nonetheless elegant by its many windows and the high arches which contain them. This combination of power and grace, while certainly slightly Machiavellian, was also exactly what the people of the classical world were presumed to have possessed by the humanist thinkers whose writing spurred the Renaissance. As such, the Palazzo Pitti (or at least its facade) can be seen as an enactment of the humanist vision of a reestablished classical aesthetic. Vasari describes the Palazzo Pitti as both “ambitious and magnificent” (Vasari, 91), and he’s correct to: this palace is a bold statement, a private citizen declaring that he shared the qualities of the revered ancients. This, like the Florence Cathedral, is one of the first examples of wealthy, powerful people in the Renaissance era cementing their status through association with the new humanist project and the respected classical world.
Creator
Architect: Filippo Brunelleschi
Photograph: sailko
Photograph: sailko
Source
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palazzo_pitti_01.JPG
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists
Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists
Date
Originally built circa 1440
Contributor
Brendan Glenn
Rights
Licensed under creative commons.
Original Format
Photograph
Citation
Architect: Filippo Brunelleschi
Photograph: sailko, “Palazzo Pitti,” HIST 139 - Early Modern Europe, accessed April 25, 2026, https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/items/show/10.