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This dissertation focuses on the artistic and architectural patronage of the Pucci family, Medici stalwarts whose carefully constructed political and cultural alignment with the ruling family of Florence was the impetus for their rising fortunes over the course of the 15th and 16th centuries. Their homes, chapels, and palaces in Tuscany and Rome were designed and furnished with paintings, sculpture, and intarsiated woodwork attributable to Michelozzo; the Pollaiuolo brothers; Botticelli; Giuliano da Sangallo and the heirs to his workshop: Francesco da Sangallo and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger; Baccio d'Agnolo; Pontormo; Bronzino; Baccio and Raffaello da Montelupo; Pietro and Domenico Rosselli; Michelangelo; Bartolommeo Ammannati; Giovanni Battista Naldini; Alessandro Allori; and Giovanni Battista Caccini.

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between élites and urban spaces with the aim of creating a profile of municipal patronage of art and architecture in Italian cities during the late republican period (2nd and 1st centuries BCE). Starting from a discussion of the methods and the terms previously used by scholars (euergetism, munificence, etc.), the research delves into the civic and urban histories of Italian cities to study the interactions between monuments and society. With the aid of a substantial epigraphic dossier – as well as archaeological and literary sources – I discuss the actors, the processes, and the cultural aspects behind the construction of public buildings and monuments in late Hellenistic Italy. At the center of the work stand three case studies (Aquileia, Praeneste, and Pompeii), each offering a peculiar perspective on the topic. Thanks to the close reading of these cases, I offer new readings and conclusions on various problems connected with the social and economic history of Italian communities, the relationship between Rome and the Italian allies, and the development of Italian urbanism in the context of the Roman hegemonic expansion.