National Museum of the Royal Palace, Pisa

The Palace, whose construction, between 1583 and 1587, is credited to Francesco I de’ Medici, faces the Lungarni with its facade while at the back, through two large arches, it is connected on one side to the church of San Nicola and on the other to the 13th-century House of the Widows. Currently also home to the Superintendence, it houses the museum in the rooms of the noble floor. It documents the unfolding over time of an identical inclination towards beauty of the ruling classes, from the Medici to the bourgeois collectors of the twentieth century. It indeed exhibits the tapestries and furnishings that the Medici used to decorate the palace’s rooms. Among the portraits of the main members of the house (many coming from the collection of the Order of the Knights of Saint Stephen) are notable depictions of Eleonora di Toledo, wife of Cosimo I de’ Medici (work of Bronzino) [Tapestry Room], of Cosimo himself depicted with the grand ducal insignia (copy from the Flemish Iustus Sustermans, the family’s official portraitist), of Ferdinando de’ Medici in cardinal’s attire (work of Alessandro Allori) [Room 7]. Other monumental portraits of the grand dukes [Room 8], join the numerous portraits (works of Ferretti and Tempesti) of members of the Lorraine house that succeeded the Medici in ruling Tuscany and of two Savoy kings, Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I [Room 11].

Of particular importance is the collection of ancient armaments from the Game of the Bridge, rich with over 900 pieces of Lombard manufacture from the 15th-18th centuries [Room 6]. Among the private collections obtained in various ways are works attributed to Rosso Fiorentino (Rebecca at the well), to the very young Raphael (the Miracle of the Two Hanged Men, part of the predella of the Triptych of San Nicola da Tolentino) [Room 12], of Francesco and Luigi Gioli and the very rich bequest of the surgeon Antonio Ceci with Italian and Flemish paintings, miniatures on ivory, medals, porcelains, bronzes and drawings [Rooms 13-16].

Among the most recent acquisitions are paintings by Plinio Nomellini, Spartaco Carlini, Galileo Ghini, Mino Rosi and Gianni Bertini.

Also exhibited are the very rich gypsum collection and paintings by Italo Griselli, among the major Italian sculptor-portraitists of the first half of the twentieth century [Rooms 17-21].

Combined ticket with the National Museum of San Matteo in Pisa: € 8.00 (full) € 4.00 (reduced)