Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Hedley Fitton

Hedley Fitton was born in 1859 in Manchester, England. During the early part of his life, he worked as an editor and illustrator for The Daily Chronicle in his home town of Manchester. He specialized in architectural etchings and gained notoriety for his finely detailed etchings of well known British and European structures. His etchings include street scenes and prominent cathedrals of such cities as London, Florence, Edinburgh, and Paris. This etching is of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River."

According to Robert Dunthorne, London print dealer and the official publisher to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers.

"One of the most characteristic bits of old Florence still remaining is the Ponte Vecchio. The present bridge, the oldest and most picturesque in the city, was built in 1362 by Taddeo Gaddi, and, except for the open loggia in the middle is covered with shops; these were originally occupied by the butchers; but, in the middle of the sixteenth century, Cosimo I dismissed them and established the goldsmiths in their place. Vasari used the shops on the east side of the bridge as a support for the corridor he built for Cosimo to connect the two Grand Ducal Palaces, the Uffizi and the Pitti."