Poccetti Gallery (Galleria del Poccetti)

The next room, between the apartments of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, was the Poccetti Gallery (Galleria del Poccetti), also called Poccetti’s Corridor (Corridorio del Poccetti).

Ceiling vault

During the 17th century, this room was once a barrel-vaulted loggia referred to as the “loggetta made into a gallery,” a passageway open to the garden and an interior courtyard that connected the private apartment of the Grand Duke with the apartment of the Grand Duchess.

Allegory of Justice (Mateo Rosselli)

This corridor owes its traditional name to the erroneous attribution of the frescoes on the vault, once believed to be by Florentine artist  Bernardino Poccetti (Bernardino Barbatelli) and, instead, made after his death, at the time of Cosimo II.

It was based on a project by his pupil Michelangelo Cinganelli who executed the pictorial decoration with the help of Filippo Tarchiani, Matteo Rosselli and Ottavio Vannini (1620-25).  In 1813, the logetta was closed off and became a part of the new Palatine Gallery.

Lunette with fresco of Siena with the She-wolf

Lunette with fresco of Florence with the Marzocco

In keeping with the typical taste at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, the ceiling vault is subdivided into squares, cartouches, panels and folders built into the architecture, with allegorical figures such as Faith, Justice and Fortress; in the lunettes the allegories of Florence (with the marzocco) and of Siena (with the she-wolf). The whole is enriched with grotesques and stuccos.  In the center of the hall is a table (1716) commissioned by Cosimo III and done by Giovan Battista Foggini.

Ila and the Nymphs (Francesco Furini, 1630-1633)

Other works in the Poccetti Gallery include:

• Portrait of the Jesuit Father Giovan Pietro Pinamonti (Andrea Pozzo)
• Santa Giuliana (Domenico Fetti)
• Man in Black in Profile(Rosso Fiorentino, ca. 1520-1522)
• Saint Jerome in the Study  Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, ca. 1617)
• Portrait of Cardinal Ferdinando de ‘Medici (workshop of Pulzone Scipione, ca. 1603-1608)
• Portrait of Monsignor Francesco Prospero Urbani (Federico Barocci)
• Portrait of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (copy by Pieter Paul Rubens)
• Female Portrait (copy by Pieter Paul Rubens)
• Three Young Jews led into the Furnace (Lorenzo Lippi, ca. 1635)
• River Landscape (Gaspard Dughet)
• Landscape with Faun and Nymphs (Gaspard Dughet)
• Landscape with Shepherds and Herds (Gaspard Dughet)
• Landscape with Ruins and Figures (Gaspard Dughet)
• Ila and the Nymphs (Francesco Furini, 1630-1633)
• Parable of the Unfaithful Farmer (workshop of Domenico Fetti)
• Parable of the Lost Drachma (workshop of Domenico Fetti)
• Sermon of St. John the Baptist (Jacob Pynas)
• Male Portrait (Niccolò Cassana)
• Portrait of Oliver Cromwell (workshop of Peter Lely)
• Adoration of the Shepherds (Andrea Schiavone)
• Portrait of General Grifoni (Justus Suttermans, ca. 1650)
• Portrait of a Painter (Niccolò Cassana)
• Saint Francis of Assisi receives the Stigmata (Jan van Scorel)
• Bust of Cosimo II  (Mattias Ferrucci, 1621)
• Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew (Jusepe de Ribera)

Bust of Cosimo II (Mattias Ferrucci, 1621)

Poccetti Gallery: Pitti Palace, Piazza de’ Pitti, 1, Florence, Italy. Tel:+39 055 294883. Open Tuesdays-Sundays, 8:15 AM – 6:50 PM. Admission: Palatine Gallery (€8.50), Silver Museum (€6.00), Gallery of Modern Art (€8.50), Costume Gallery/Porcelain Museum/Boboli Gardens/Bardini Garden (€6.00).

How to Get There: Take the C3 or D bus to the Pitti stop.