Palazzo Martelli

Palazzo Martelli, also known as Casa Martelli, is a historic house museum in central Florence, Italy, located at Via Ferdinando Zannetti 8 near the corner with Via Cerretani. Since 2009 it has operated as a civic museum under the Musei del Bargello, displaying in situ the remains of the original Martelli family's art collection and its frescoed rooms. The palace is significant as the last Florentine example of a private noble collection formed between the 16th and 17th centuries, preserved with the atmosphere of an aristocratic domestic environment intact.

The Martelli family's presence on the site dates to the 1520s, when Ilarione di Bartolomeo Martelli acquired properties that would form the core of the palace. In 1627, a marriage between Senator Marco Martelli and his cousin Maria consolidated several neighboring buildings, and Marco subsequently purchased additional adjacent structures. A major structural unification campaign began in the late 1660s along what was then via della Forca (later via Zannetti), continuing for approximately eighty years. In 1738, Giuseppe Maria Martelli, Archbishop of Florence, and Niccolò Martelli commissioned architect Bernardino Ciurini to complete the unification and redecorate the piano nobile. At the end of the 18th century, Marco, son of Niccolò, systematically reorganized the family picture gallery according to Enlightenment principles, arranging works by genre rather than by room, and commissioned new mythological frescoes from Tommaso Gherardini and others. Luigi Sabatelli decorated the staircase vault around this time. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, many artworks were sold as the family's fortunes declined. In 1986, the last Martelli resident, Francesca Martelli, bequeathed the palace and remaining possessions to the Curia of Florence. The Curia sold the complex to the Italian state in 1998. The Soprintendenza per il Polo Museale Fiorentino then undertook extensive restoration, cataloguing (initially curated by Mina Gregori), and upgrading works. The museum opened to the public on 22 October 2009.

The collection represents centuries of accumulated patronage and reflects the collecting tastes of Florentine nobility from the Renaissance through the 19th century. Despite significant dispersal over two centuries, the remaining holdings are substantial. The picture gallery contains works by Piero di Cosimo, Domenico Beccafumi, Salvator Rosa, Luca Giordano, Francesco Francia, Francesco Morandini, Giordano, Justus Sustermans, Michael Sweerts, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Orazio Borgianni, and Francesco Curradi. The collection also includes small bronzes by Massimiliano Soldani Benzi, collected by Abbot Domenico Martelli (1672-1753), and seven boxwood sculptures by Johannes Sporer (1743-1751) depicting ancient sculptures. The works are displayed in the crowded, wall-to-wall arrangement typical of the period, preserving the original domestic presentation rather than a modern museum layout. Notable losses from the collection include two works once attributed to Donatello, a marble David and the Martelli coat of arms, which were displayed in a prominent position on the staircase; the David is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, while both the David and the coat of arms are also reported to be at the Bargello National Museum.

The first gallery room features a ceiling fresco of 1822 by Antonio Marini depicting Domenico Martelli receiving the privilege of adding French fleurs-de-lis to the family coat of arms; Giovanni Battista Benigni's portrait of Niccolò Martelli's family in the parlor (1777); a terracotta bust of Ugolino di Luigi Martelli, Bishop of Narni (circa 1518) attributed to the sculptor "Ghoro"; Francesco Morandini's portrait of Antonio de'Ricci; and Salvator Rosa's Conspiracy of Catiline sealed with libations of wine and blood (1662). The second room contains Domenico Beccafumi's Festival of Lupercalia and Cult of either Vesta or Cerealia (circa 1512); Luca Giordano's Oath of Brutus against Tarquins after Death of Lucretia (circa 1685); and Justus Sustermans' Portrait of Vittoria delle Rovere as St Margaret of Antioch (before 1634). The third room has another Antonio Marini ceiling fresco of 1822 showing Roberto Martelli visiting Donatello's workshop; Pieter Brueghel the Younger's Dance party in a Tavern and Kermesse of St George; Hendrik Frans van Lint's Veduta of Venice; and self-portraits by Luigi Sabatelli and Pietro Benvenuti (both 1802). The Room of the Poets or of Parnassus, with a ceiling painted by Tommaso Gherardini in 1758, contains Orazio Borgianni's half-bust portraits of Democritus and Heraclitus (1612-1613) and an early 19th-century krater vase by the Ginori Factory. The Room of Love Ruling the World features a ceiling fresco of 1847 by Nicola Cianfanelli, an allegory painted for the wedding of Alessandro Martelli with Marianna Velluti Zati. The anteroom holds a wax bust-portrait of Bishop Scipione de' Ricci by Clemente Susini, an Adoration of the Jesus Child attributed to Piero di Cosimo, and a portrait of Baccio Martelli (1511-1564) attributed to Santi di Tito. The ballroom, designed by Luca Ristorini and painted by Piero and Antonio Miseri, contains vedute with the Martelli-Pucci and Martelli-Ricci coats of arms.

The palace presents a relatively restrained street façade with partly infilled arched openings, smooth dressed stone surrounds, and a distinctive terrace at the piano nobile with an arched portal framed by a rectangular surround and protected by an iron balcony, an innovation in Florence's stone balustrade tradition. A tabernacle on the façade contains a Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John attributed to Mino da Fiesole. The entrance hall leads to a small inner courtyard with arcades fitted with glazing, where illusionistic painted decoration extends the perceived space. From here, visitors access the grand staircase in pietra serena with a wrought-iron handrail, at whose head appears the Martelli coat of arms: a gold griffin on a red field. A private passage from the courtyard leads to the Basilica of San Lorenzo. The ground floor contains the so-called "woodland room" (stanza a paese), painted by Niccolò Contestabili in 1809-1816 with a romantic woodland landscape, and the winter garden or "bersò," painted by Gaetano Gucci in 1791 with a trompe-l'oeil pergola. These rooms originally formed part of the summer apartments. A small room frescoed with an illusionistic pergola by Connestabile is also on this level, and a service wing contains a "bathroom" frescoed in 1822 with bucolic scenes, designed to cool the interior through fountains, basins, and courtyard-facing windows. The piano nobile contains four medium-sized gallery rooms where paintings are hung densely, following the same wall-covering principle as the Galleria Palatina.

Casa Martelli is managed by the Musei del Bargello and is part of the municipal heritage of Florence. The museum is located at Via Ferdinando Zannetti 8, near the Duomo and the Medici Chapels in the historic center. Access is regulated and requires advance booking. Visits take place in small groups of up to 15 people, led by museum staff. As of the latest information, the museum is closed for renovations from March 10 through December 31, 2026. When open, visits typically begin at 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, and at 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 12:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Bookings can be made by telephone at 055 0649420 during specified hours. The museum is equipped with facilities for disabled access, including an elevator to the first floor and a toilet equipped for disabled visitors. The use of scooters and electric wheelchairs is limited and assessed case by case.