Not every dwarf at the Palazzo Pitti--there were five--got his portrait painted by Bronzino but Morgante jested his way into the court's favor. The owl on his shoulder alludes to bird hunting, the favorite recreation of Cosimo I de' Medici.
Bronzino wanted to settle a Renaissance debate by proving with these back and front views that painters could be the equal of sculptors in their depictions of the human body.
There's even a statue of Morgante riding a tortoise, just outside the palace in the Boboli Gardens.
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| Valerio Cioli (1562) |
The palace's exterior has been likened to a Roman aqueduct. Although the building is out of synch with other Renaissance architecture, it proved to be easily expanded when Eleanor of Toledo, Cosimo's wife, bought the palace in 1549. The banker for whom it was named died in 1473 before the building could be finished which raises the question: how exactly did palaces change hands in those days? Were there royal real estate agents?
When Napoleon was conquering Europe two centuries later, he occasionally bivouacked in the palace and bathed in this tub.
The next generation of Medicis began using the palace as a showcase for their enormous art collection. More than 500 pieces of Renaissance art remain in the Palatine Gallery, hung more for their pleasure than the edification of the 21st century public.
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| Cardinal Bentivoglio by Antonio van Dyck |
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| "Venere" by Antonio Canova (Early 19th Century) |
After the last Medici died in 1737, the palace passed into the hands of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine who began the "modern" art collection. It didn't show me much. My time probably would have been better spent in the Museum of Costume and Fashion. All the palace's collections are administered by the Uffizi Gallery.
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| "Menoeceus" by Aristodemo Costoli (partial, 19th Century) |
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| "First Steps" by Adriano Cecioni (1869) |
One of three grottoes outside the palace is named for Moses although I don't think this is him.
Morning would have provided much better light for photographing the elevated Artichoke Fountain, the palace's mid-17th century centerpiece and visible from the royal apartments. You pass beneath it to enter the Boboli Gardens, landscaped by the Medicis when they were first sprucing up the palace.
The fountain is positioned at the bottom of an axis that evolved over time and goes up a hill. It passes through an amphitheater, the earliest section,
. . . and ends at the Statue of Abundance, modeled after Joanna of Austria who married Cosimo's and Eleanora's son Ferdinand. Long after her death, it was renamed by another generation of the Medici family to symbolize Tuscany's prosperity.
There's also a Gentleman's Pavilion and a Knight's Garden.
Prior to visiting the garden, I only had seen gorgeous views like this of the Tuscan countryside in films.
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| "Pegasus" by Aristodemo Costoli |
I went out of my way to visit the other two grottoes.
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| "The Madama Grotto" |
Faux stalagmites and stalactites are the Buontalenti Grotto's most distinctive feature.
It's kind of creepy.
More Northern Italy
Florence
Bologna
Venice
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