Palazzo Pitti and Boboli Gardens

Italy continues to go through its inferno of a summer. Today reached 39°. We were prepared and set out relatively early. We decided to wind down our Firenze visit with only a visit to the Palazzo Pitti and its attached Boboli Giardini, the Boboli Gardens.

Palazzo Pitti is now part of the Uffizi complex, so it is now a gallery and museum, but in its heyday, it was a massive palace built by Signore Pitti as a way to outdo the Medici. They made it so huge that you could fit the entirety of Palazzo Strozzi in its courtyard. These Renaissance Florentine aristocrats certainly knew how to compete with each other. Ultimately, Pitti ran out of money and the Medici took over the palazzo regardless. Now that had to burn. Ouch!

I really enjoyed my visit to the Pitti gallery. There were no crowds, the people who were there were all well-behaved and I only saw one young woman doing a sensual pose in front of an art-work. The rooms were ornate. Incredibly so. Baroque chandeliers hung in many rooms. You would not think they could fit any more gold bling or painted surface anywhere in those rooms to house the treasures. And the treasures were wonderful. All the famous names were there. Andrea del Sarto, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Artemisia Gentileschi, whose work I came across in the movie Artemesia (1997), and others whose works were equally skilled and arresting.

I discovered three renderings in the gallery of the scene from John’s Gospel 19:5 where Pilate says, “Behold the Man”, in Latin ‘ecce homo’. Some have suggested this was said with an air of triumph. I have always thought that Pilate was drawing attention to the piteous creature brought back in before him, having been tortured and dressed in mock kingly robes, where Pilate is perhaps trying to dissuade the crowd from their murderous intent. His words were dismissive, as if to sway the crowd that their accusation was baseless. In today’s parlance, it’s as if Pilate is saying, “just look at this guy for goodness sake, he’s not a king”.

There was Fra Bartolomeo’s rendering of ecce homo, where Christ is depicted in an almost dissociated state. There was Carlo Dolci’s rendering, where Christ, after being flogged and having received the thorns pressed into his scalp, looks cowed and beaten, utterly forlorn and almost hopeless. And finally, there was Cardi Lodovico’s portrait, where Christ seems to have turned inward and is perhaps asking himself the great existential questions pertaining to life, and more specifically, his own life. Powerful renderings all three. There was also a very muscular John the Baptist in the Desert by Cristofano Allori that was eye-catching among all the Annunciations and Adoration of the Magi paintings.

After a cold drink at the gallery caffe, we struck out to walk a little of the Boboli Gardens. However, by that time, the sun was high in the sky, and the shadows appeared to be concreted in place. It was vicious and there was really no escaping it, so we didn’t last long. The gardens, like the Palazzo they belong to, are huge and sprawling, and on another day in another season, no doubt, we would have stayed longer and ventured further.

Home for a nap and a rest. Then a rather hot passeggiata around the Duomo area finishing at a local bar for a spritz. We ate in again tonight and caught up on MediaWatch on You Tube, and watched an episode on Netflix of The Roman Emperor, a docudrama with scholars talking in between scenes. Very good.

A good day today, I think. I enjoyed the Palazzo Pitti and felt my time there was easier in a major gallery with no crowds where I could wander, read, ponder and take my time. Tomorrow is our last day in Firenze. We will go out for dinner here tomorrow night. And come Thursday, we’re off again.Read more