The King's Best Furniture at Pitti Palace

About the Exhibition

This exhibition is held in the Sala delle Nicchie on the first floor of the Palatine Gallery at the Pitti Palace, addressing changes in 'royal interior design' across three ruling houses — Medici, Lorraine, and Savoy. Spanning three periods from the 17th through the 19th century, it presents 16 genuine furniture masterpieces in total. These works show the palace's cultural history and the shifting aesthetic sensibilities of the royal houses, with highlights including intarsia and 'commesso' decoration, a vase from the Sèvres manufactory, Giovanni Socci's mechanical wastebasket, a jewel-encrusted chair made by Leonardo Van der Vinne, and a stipo that is a perfectly scaled model of the Pitti Palace itself. The exhibition explores the palace's decorative arts and furniture heritage, shedding light on historical value that remains little known despite being one of Europe's most important legacies. Visitors can experience the palace's shifting aesthetics through the Medici house's Baroque style, the Lorraine house's Oriental lacquer and streamlined furniture, and the Savoy house's ecologism.