This gallery is located in the famous Palazzo Pitti. It was opened in the second half of the 19th century. The first collection included paintings brought from the Academy of Fine Arts. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was moved to the second floor of the palace and housed in the halls of the Palatine Library, the children's rooms of the Medici family, and the servants' quarters.
Today the Gallery occupies 30 halls. The paintings are displayed chronologically, so they allow visitors to trace how painting developed from the time of Duke Pietro Leopoldo, who lived in the 18th century, up to the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to canvases, furniture and interior decorations are also on display here.
At the very beginning of the tour, visitors are greeted by Neoclassical paintings, for example, Giuseppe Bezzuoli's work "The Entry of Charles VIII," Pietro Benvenuto's canvas "The Oath of Napoleon's Saxons," and others. In the Gallery's halls, you can also see many sculptures: both Pietro Tenerani's romantic "Psyche" and the figure of the slain "Abel" by Giovanni Dupre.
But the Gallery of Modern Art is best characterized by the paintings of well-known 19th-century Tuscan artists who united into a distinct movement in the art world - the "Macchiaioli" (“macchia” means "spot" in Italian). Their works are distinguished by the extensive use of bright patches of color. Among the most famous are the paintings "Rotonda Palmieri" and "The Battle of Magenta."
