Instanting splendor in the early modern palace: Pietro da Cortona and the rethoric of gold in Palazzo Pitti's Planetary rooms

This article explores the role played by gold in encoding notions of splendor within the early modern interior thanks to its e!ulgent visual and material qualities. By becoming part of frames for quadri riportati, covering entire sections of walls and ceilings, or being included in the pictorial fabric of frescoes, gold became an active element of the visual and material vocabulary of social performance, in a context where luxury had paramount agency in regulating social relations, protocol, and hierarchy. After an overview framing gold in art theory and in the practice of palace decorations, the article will focus on a case study, the Sale dei Pianeti in the Pitti Palace, Florence, frescoed by Pietro da Cortona and his assistant and heir, Ciro Ferri, from 1641 to 1665. These rooms, decorated with an extensive use of gold on the surface of the walls and ceilings, show how this material embodied a Medici golden age, played a role in competition with the Barberini family, and articulated the semantics of splendor at the Grand-Ducal court.