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Luca Pitti
Portrait of Luca Pitti at Kursk Art Gallery
Banker
President
Cosimo de' Medici
Magistrate of Florence
Personal details
Born
1398 Florence, Republic of Florence
Died
1472 Republic of Florence
Nationality
Italian
Luca Pitti (1398–1472) was a Florentine banker during the period of the republic presided over by Cosimo de' Medici. He was awarded a knighthood, and received lavish presents from both the Signory of Firenze and the Medici family as a reward for helping maintain the government during the last years of Cosimo's rule when Cosimo was too old and feeble to maintain power alone.
As the head magistrate of Florence, known as "The Gonfalonier of Justice," he wielded great power and influence. In August, 1458, he staged a coup to seize control of Florentine government in the name of its existing ruler, the elderly and now frail Cosimo de' Medici. In effect he wished to strengthen the existing government, as a result many leading citizens were banished, and many other citizens were driven from power. The newly formed government was to last eight years with Cosimo as its figurehead, the reality being he was too frail to maintain power alone. Pitti's chief opponent at this time was Girolamo Machiavelli who was banished. However, he travelled the neighbouring principalities whipping up opposition to the new Florentine government. He was consequently declared a rebel, betrayed and returned to Florence where he mysteriously died in prison.
Pitti was then ennobled and very wealthy indeed, Niccolò Machiavelli in his History of Florence estimates no less a sum than twenty thousand ducats was presented to him.
It was then that he sought to rival the glory, if not power, of the Medici and began construction of the Palazzo Pitti intended to rival the palazzo of the Medici. He also began work on a villa at Rusciano. For the Palazzo Pitti, legend has it he "decided to employ the most brilliant architect of the times, whom he ordered to make the windows as big as the doors of the Medici residence and create an internal courtyard that was large enough to contain the whole of the Medici's palace on the Via Larga". This is almost certainly apocryphal as the architect Brunelleschi often credited with the design had been dead since twelve years. The true architect, often thought to be Luca Fancelli, was less well known at the time and the new palazzo, while awe inspiring, was not a true rival to the magnificence of the Medici residences. Machiavelli also states that Pitti would give sanctuary to any criminal within his walls if they could be of use in their building or decoration. Machiavelli also hints that Pitti's wealth was further increased by bribes and presents in return for favours. These allegations may or may not be true, one should remember that Machiavelli was not only opposed to the Medici himself, but also a kinsman of Pitti's arch enemy Girolamo Machiavelli who had been most likely murdered by the government which in effect Pitti controlled.
It has been said that Pitti wished to become first citizen and dictator himself. After the death of Cosimo in 1464, he conspired to overthrow and murder Piero di Cosimo de' Medici. He was pardoned by Piero after the failure of the plot and thereafter supported him.
Pitti's prosperity declined from 1464, following the death of Cosimo, his patron. Pitti died in 1472, work on his grand palazzo had stopped in 1465, and he was not to see it completed. However the family survived the upheaval following the overthrow of the Medici's power in 1494, and the tyrannical and puritanical rule of Girolamo Savonarola. Retaining some limited power and influence the family continued to reside at the Palazzo Pitti until finally in 1549 failing fortunes compelled Pitti's descendant Buonaccorso Pitti to sell the palazzo to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Eleanor, wife of Grand Duke Cosimo I who re-enforced, the restored but hitherto wavering, power of the Medici in Florence in 1537.
LucaPitti (1398–1472) was a Florentine banker during the period of the republic presided over by Cosimo de' Medici. He was awarded a knighthood, and received...
present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of LucaPitti, an ambitious Florentine banker. The palace was bought by the Medici family...
Medici continued. In October 1467, as part of a rivalry between Piero and LucaPitti, there was an assassination attempt against Lucrezia and her son Giuliano...
Fancelli likely designed the Palazzo Pitti, the Florentine residence of the Medici's friend, and supposed rival, LucaPitti; Vasari attributes the design to...
Medici Bank. These debts were owed primarily by a Florentine nobleman, LucaPitti. Lucca called for an armed insurrection against Piero, but a co-conspirator...
sided against him; he was among the conspirators who participated in LucaPitti's failed coup in 1466. Forgiven by Piero, he thenceforth took care of the...
Trecentonovelle, and once belonged to the Salviati family. In the mid-15th century, LucaPitti bought the estate and had it restructured by Filippo Brunelleschi. The...
pushed Neroni to take part in the 1466 conspiracy against him led by LucaPitti, Angelo Acciaiuoli and Niccolò Soderini. Piero, however, was warned of...
Luca Signorelli (c. 1441/1445 – 16 October 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cortona, in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability...
an ally of Tommaso Soderini, father of Piero Soderini. Together with LucaPitti, they use their influence to lift the ban of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder...
thwarting a poisoning attempt by the Duke of Milan. His son, Luca, built the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, but never finished it, it was given to him, but...
in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, while the original remains at the Pitti Palace. The Raphael painting was owned by Ottaviano de' Medici, and requested...
career suffered a serious setback when, together with Diotisalvi Neroni, LucaPitti and Niccolò Soderini, he conspired against Piero de' Medici. When the...
by cloth on which was painted a sky. The Palazzo Pitti (which the Medici had purchased from LucaPitti in 1549) had an amphitheatre constructed in its...
taking his inspiration from the Pitti Palace for the old Berlin Museum". At the time, all the painting rooms in Florence's Pitti Palace were covered in this...
- Ko-Ko, Pitti-Sing and Pooh-Bah A Is Happy - The Mikado, Pooh-Bah, Pitti-Sing, Ko-Ko and Katisha Flowers That Bloom in the Spring - Pitti-Sing, Ko-Ko...
also an exhibition of Simons's work and an outdoor fashion show at the Pitti Immagine Uomo tradeshow in Florence, Italy for a retrospective of the designer's...
oil painting of Joseph sold by his brothers. He frescoed two rooms in the Pitti Palace (Room of Psyche and Room of Prometheus). The latter is painted with...
She married Giovanni degli Albizzi and had four sons: Luca (1511-1555, married Laudomia Pitti), Lorenzo (1512-1560), Benedetto (1514-1546, poet) and...
century). The museum houses masterpieces by Michelangelo, such as his Bacchus, Pitti Tondo (or Madonna and Child), Brutus and David-Apollo. Its collection includes...
monumentality. Given the "unfinished" nature of some tondi, such as the Pitti Tondo and the Taddei Tondo, it is difficult to determine whether Michelangelo...
Ovid's Four Ages of Man in the small Sala della Stufa, a room in the Palazzo Pitti. The first two frescoes represented the "ages" of gold and silver. In 1641...
Signoria (civic government) led by Tommaso Soderini, Oddo Altoviti and Lucca Pitti was elected and Cosimo returned. The Medici became the city's leading family...
Chart, but peaked at number 14 on the NZ Hot Singles Chart. "No Shade at Pitti" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 35 on the...
Benvenuti was commissioned in 1811–12 to decorate the new rooms in Palazzo Pitti, where he painted a series of mythologic scenes for the Salon of Hercules...
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