https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/files/original/0975a79f3a82d926f6559d44512322cb.JPG bb58be121474d3f88af360abab580ecd Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photograph Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Palazzo Pitti Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Architect: Filippo Brunelleschi Photograph: sailko Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Brendan Glenn Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Originally built circa 1440 Description An account of the resource 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. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palazzo_pitti_01.JPG Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Licensed under creative commons.