Palazzo Pitti
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The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.
Early, tinted 20th-century photograph of the Palazzo Pitti, then still known as La Residenza Reale following the residency of King Victor Emmanuel II between 1865 and 1871, when Florence was the capital of Italy
Virtual reconstruction of the fifteenth-century façade of Palazzo Pitti. Reconstruction by Adriano Marinazzo (2014).
Luca Pitti (1398–1472) began work on the palazzo in 1458.
Eleanor of Toledo, Duchess of Florence, bought the palazzo from the Pitti in 1549 for the Medici. Portrait after Bronzino.
Cosimo I de' Medici
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Cosimo I de' Medici was the second duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first grand duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death.
Cosimo I de' Medici at about 19 years of age (by Pontormo, c. 1538)
Cosimo I's coronation as Grand Duke of Tuscany, which happened in 1570, Rome.
Official portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici as Grand Duke of Tuscany by Giovanni Battista Naldini