19th-century panorama of Italian art
The Palazzo Pitti’s modern art museum houses Italian paintings and sculptures from the neoclassical era to the 1930s. Known for its superlative collection of work by the Macchiaioli—a group of Tuscan painters who anticipated impressionism— the museum also features important sculptures by Antonio Canova, Pietro Tenerani and Giovanni Duprè. Paintings of historical subjects by artists such as Luigi Sabatelli and Enrico Pollastrini are complemented by evocative view and interior scenes by Silvestro Lega, Telemaco Signorini and others. Palazzo Pitti, which still bears the name of its first owner—the Florentine banker Luca Pitti—was purchased in 1550 by Cosimo I de’ Medici and his wife Eleonora di Toledo. Transformed into the new grand-ducal residence, it soon became the symbol of the consolidated power of the Medici in Tuscany. It is currently home to four different museums: the Treasury of the Grand Dukes on the ground floor; the Palatine Gallery and the Royal Apartments on the main floor; and the Gallery of Modern Art and the Museum of Fashion and Costume on the second floor.
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