should ever imagine their grandeur and beauty.[1] And it is certain that duke Cosmo could not have found any undertaking more worthy of the elevation and greatness of his mind than the completion of this palace, which would seem to have been erected by Messer Luca Pitti, expressly for his most illustrious excellency. Messer Lucca left it unfinished, being constantly occupied with his labours for the state; and his heirs, not having means wherewith to complete the building, were glad to give it up to the duchess, who continued to expend money on it during the whole of her life, but not to such an amount as to give hope that it could be quickly finished. It is true that she had intended, as I have heard, to expend 40,000 ducats on it in one year only, if she lived, to the end that she might see it if not finished, at least on the way to completion. The model of Filippo has not been found, and his excellency has therefore had another made by Bartolommeo Ammanati, an excellent sculptor and architect.[2] It is according to this that they are now working, and a great part of the inner court is already completed in rustic work, similar to that of the outer court.[3] And of a truth, whoever
- ↑ For various details respecting the Pitti Palace and Gardens, see the well-known works of Anguillesi, Inghirami, etc.
- ↑ Paolo Falconieri, a most accomplished architect, subsequently made a design for the completion of the work, which is described by Baldinucci in the life of Ammanati; but this was not put in execution, on account of its great cost. Among the designs afterwards prepared, that of Giulio Parigi was executed in part, as we are also told, by Baldinucci. Great additions and embellishments have been made, both inside and out, by the modern architects Gasparo Paoletti, Guiseppe Cacialli, and Cav. Pasquale Poccianti. Some notice of this royal palace will be found in almost all the most celebrated architectural works. — Masselii.
- ↑ See Buggieri, Studio d'Architettura di porte e finestre, for drawings of many parts of this palace. The Rondo Vecchio, which forms a right angle with the main building, was completed in the year 1764, under Marshal Botta; and the Rondo Nuovo, which is on the other side, was commenced by the Grand Duke Leopold in 1785, and finished by Ferdinand III, in 1799. For this building Brunelleschi adopted the so-called rustic style, examples of which may be seen in ancient edifices in Tuscany, and in the Roman dominions, as, for example, in the Aqua Martia and Curia Ilostilia, in the walls of Colonocelli near Tivoli, in a temple near Terracina, and even in certain instances in Greece (See Dodwell, Views and Descriptions of Cyclopian and Pelasgic Remains in Greece and Italy, London, 1834). Instances are also found of the use of this style throughout the middle ages: as, for example, in the palace of the Emperor Barbarossa at Gelnhausen. Brunelleschi was the founder
