Who Was the Architect of the Palazzo Pitti? Tackling a Great Mystery in Western Architectural History

The Palazzo Pitti in Florence, Italy, is a palace built in the latter half of the 15th century. It was later expanded and served as the residence of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Today, it is a museum and is also known for hosting annual fashion shows.

My specialty is Italian Baroque architecture, and I have been studying the Palazzo Pitti for nearly 15 years, ever since I studied abroad in Florence. The great mystery of this building is the identity of its architect. It was originally thought to be the great architect Brunelleschi, but this was questioned in the 20th century, and serious research began in Florence about 10 years ago. It has become a major question in the history of Western architecture.

The matter would be settled if contracts or payment records that could lead to the architect were found among old documents, but there is almost no chance of that. So, what can be done? Ultimately, the architect must be identified through stylistic and design characteristics. It's like a world of detective fiction.

There are two methods of deduction. The first is to focus thoroughly on the details. A famous local researcher focuses on the design of the capitals of the pilasters on the windows, proposing a theory that it was a certain architect with a superior understanding of ancient Rome. The Palazzo Pitti is a magnificent, massive stone building with a facade 250 meters wide, so it feels somewhat ironic that the key to identifying its architect lies in such a tiny detail. The other method is to infer a relationship with a specific architect from the client's social and economic circumstances. By shedding light from other academic fields on aspects that cannot be answered from the perspective of architectural or art history alone, new insights can be gained. As a result of continuing this research, I believe it was a certain architect. This is one of the existing hypotheses, not a new discovery, but I believe my paper can further strengthen this theory.

While studying abroad in Florence, I felt that the stone buildings in the city had such an overwhelming presence as historical monuments that modern people seemed like outsiders. It is a great joy to be able to study beautiful buildings that carry the weight of centuries of history. At the same time, the joy of historical research—reading historical materials such as architectural drawings and letters from the period to construct one's own theories—is also a great attraction. For this reason, I still hole up in a local library once a year to grapple with old documents.