Gaspare Maria Paoletti (December 6, 1727February 19, 1813) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor and architect, active mainly in his native

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. Among his works are the Palazzina della Meridiana (1775), the White Hall (1776), and the Museum of La Specola, all attached to the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

. He worked extensively at the Villa di Poggio Imperiale (1776-1783).

Biography

Early life and education

Gaspare Maria Paoletti was born in Florence on December 6, 1727. He studied drawing with the sculptor Vincenzo Foggini (1692–1755) and then studied architecture under Bernardino Ciurini (1695–1752) and

Ferdinando Ruggieri Ferdinando Ruggeri (Florence, 1691–1741) was an Italian architect, active in Florence during the late Baroque period. Ruggèri helped design the left facade of the Church of San Firenze (1715), the Palazzo Capponi in Florence, the Palazzo San ...

. Paoletti established a lasting association with Giuseppe Ruggieri, whom he assisted on a project for the baths (1744–62) at San Giuliano Terme, near

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

. Close compositional affinities with the Palazzo della Misericordia at San Giuliano Terme (ashlar portico and quoins, small loggia at piano nobile level featuring a Serliana) identify the first work attributed to Paoletti, the Casino dei Nobili (c. 1750), Pisa.

Career

In 1761 he won the competition for the façade of the church of San Vincenzo dei Teatini, Modena, with a project inspired by the façade of San Giovannino dei Gesuiti (later degli Scolopi; 1579), Florence, by

Bartolomeo Ammannati Bartolomeo Ammannati (18 June 1511 – 13 April 1592) was an Italian architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence, Italy. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino (assisting on the design of the Library of St. Mark ...

. Paoletti then went to

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

, which was at that time the centre of the dissemination of French architectural styles, and then visited Rome. In 1766 Paoletti was officially appointed alongside Giuseppe Ruggieri as First Engineer to the Royal Works, thus assuming responsibility for the major projects of restoration, enlargement and changed use of crown buildings. The same year he was commissioned to enlarge the Villa del Poggio Imperiale in order to raise it to the pompous standards of an out-of-town European palace. He added two spacious courtyards to the 17th-century nucleus, stylistically unified by the application throughout of a compositional scheme derived from

Palladio Andrea Palladio ( , ; ; 30 November 1508 – 19 August 1580) was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Venetian Republic. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily Vitruvius, is widely considered to be one ...

’s Palazzo Chiericati (1550–57) in

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

. During the work on Poggio Imperiale, a difficult and innovative operation was carried out to preserve a

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

once believed to be by

Cosimo Rosselli Cosimo Rosselli (; 1439–1507) was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in his birthplace of Florence, but also in Pisa earlier in his career and in 1481–82 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he painted some of the large ...

(now attributed to Cosimo Lotti), by removing the entire supporting wall. The interior decoration at Poggio Imperiale was executed (1766–c. 1782) in collaboration with

Giocondo Albertolli Giocondo Albertolli (24 July 1742 – 15 November 1839) was a Switzerland, Swiss-born architect, painter, and sculptor who was active in Italy during the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical period. Biography Albertolli was born into a family of artists ...

and Grato Albertolli. Paoletti moved from

Louis XV style The Louis XV style or ''Louis Quinze'' (, ) is a style of architecture and decorative arts which appeared during the reign of Louis XV. From 1710 until about 1730, a period known as the Régence, it was largely an extension of the Louis XIV sty ...

for the rooms around the right-hand courtyard to a solemn

Louis XVI style Louis XVI style, also called ''Louis Seize'', is a style of architecture, furniture, decoration and art which developed in France during the 19-year reign of Louis XVI (1774–1792), just before the French Revolution. It saw the final phase of t ...

in the ballroom, articulated by coupled fluted pilasters supporting a rigid continuous trabeation. This solution, similar to French town houses of the period, was repeated in the White Room (1776–83) of the

and in the Tribuna fitted out (1779–80) in the

Galleria degli Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of th ...

to accommodate the sculptural Niobe Group. From 1771 Paoletti worked on the 16th-century Palazzo Torrigiani in Florence, adapting it as the Gabinetto di Fisica e Storia Naturale. From 1772 he was employed on works for the baths at

Montecatini Terme Montecatini Terme (Montecatini-Terme, according to Italian National Institute of Statistics, ISTAT documentation) is an Italian ''comune'' (municipality) of inhabitants in the province of Pistoia, in the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It ...

, near

Pistoia Pistoia (; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about north-west of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typic ...

. He designed the Terme Leopoldine, Bagno del Tettuccio, the Palazzina Reale, and the Locanda Maggiore. The buildings erected around the springs spread out into the countryside with a picturesque irregularity, each characterized by a different variant of the

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

. Paoletti drew upon many sources for this project, which forms the clearest expression of his didactic approach to composition. In 1776 he began work on the creation of the Palazzina della Meridiana in Florence. This was a neo-Palladian annexe to the

, extending towards the

Boboli Gardens The Boboli Gardens ( /’bo.bo.li/) is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, which l ...

. In 1784 Paoletti began the conversion of the convent of San Matteo, in the Piazza San Marco, Florence, into the Accademia di Belle Arti. The erection of the

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

in the centre of the Prato dell’Anfiteatro in the Boboli Gardens in 1789 ended a long series of projects in the gardens (the Prato della Meridiana, Giardino della Specola and Emiciclo delle Colonne).

Academic career

In 1785 Paoletti was appointed Professor of Architecture in the Accademia di Belle Arti. During his long teaching career, he continued his work of radically renewing Tuscan architecture, championing a critical classicism modelled on Palladio. Paoletti’s Palladian Revival helped Florentine architecture to overcome the limitations of

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

’s anti-classical style and prepared the way for the Neoclassicism and historical

eclecticism Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories i ...

of which many of his pupils became protagonists. His teachings were also diffused by a manual published by his assistant Ottavio Vannini. Among his pupils were Giuseppe Manetti, Cosimo Rossi Melocchi, and Pasquale Poccianti.

Gallery

File:Terme tettuccio, facciata nord 02.jpg, Back façade of the Terme Tettuccio, Montecatini Terme File:2018-09-14 Terme Tettuccio Tempio Termale 09.jpg, Exedra of the Terme Tettuccio, Montecatini Terme Boboli, palazzina della meridiana, esterno 03,3.jpg, Palazzina della Meridiana, Pitti, Florence File:Galería Uffizi, Florencia, Italia, 2022-09-18, DD 72.jpg, Dome of the Niobe room, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Note

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paoletti Gaspare Maria 1727 births 1813 deaths 18th-century Italian architects 19th-century Italian architects Italian neoclassical architects Architects from Florence