Construction begins in 1458 on the Pitti Palace, the residence of the Florentine magnate Luca Pitti, designed by an unknown architect, possibly from designs by the late Filippo Brunelleschi.

Pitti, a banker, is a loyal friend and servant to the Medici and the republic.

As the head magistrate of Florence, known as "The Gonfalonier of Justice," he wields great power and influence.

In August, 1458, he stages a coup to seize control of Florentine government in the name of its existing ruler, the elderly and now frail Cosimo de' Medici.

In effect, he wishes to strengthen the existing government.

As a result many leading citizens are banished, and many other citizens were driven from power.

The newly formed government is to last eight years with Cosimo as its figurehead, the reality being that he is too frail to maintain power alone.

Awarded a knighthood, Pitti receives lavish presents from both the Signory of Firenze and the Medici family as a reward.

The work of Desiderio da Settignano shows the influence of Donatello, specifically his use of low reliefs.

Desiderio has employed rilievo schiacciato with the utmost delicacy in his “Tabernacle of the Sacrament,” executed in 1461 for San Lorenzo in Florence.

Since then, he has created a number of works: a relief Christ Child with St. John, the Panciatichi Madonna, the Martelli Baptist and a St. Jerome. (Several beautiful portraits of women and children are also attributed to Desiderio.)

Hailingfrom a family of stone carvers and stone masons in Settignano, near Florence, he dies at around thirty-four on about January 16, 1464.

Florentine Maso Finiguerra, one of the first Italian printmakers, is also a master of niello, a technique of decorating incised silver or gold with a black metallic compound.

Finiguerra, who is thought to have assisted Lorenzo Ghiberti in the creation of the east door of the Baptistery in Florence, later associates himself with Antonio Pollaiuolo, whose paintings he may have reproduced in a series of copperplate engravings executed between 1459 and 1464, when he dies at thirty-eight.

In the realm of philosophy, Cosimo, influenced by the lectures of Gemistus Plethon, has established a modern Platonic Academy in Florence, appointing Marsilio Ficino as head of the Academy and commissioning Ficino's Latin translation of the complete works of Plato (the first ever complete translation).

Through Ficino and others associated with the Academy, Cosimo has an inestimable effect on Renaissance intellectual life.

On his death on August 1, 1464 at Careggi, Cosimo is succeeded by his son Piero 'the Gouty', father of Lorenzo the Magnificent or Il Magnifico.

After his death the Signoria awards him the title Pater Patriae, "Father of his Country", an honor once awarded to Cicero, and has it carved upon his tomb in the Church of San Lorenzo.

Luca Pitti supports a return to strict and stronger form of republicanism, but later supports Piero, who is to rule Florence from 1464 to 1469.

Bernardo Rossellino has meanwhile become Capomaestro at the Florence Duomo—completed, after numerous enlargements and delays, in 1462—from 1461 to 1464, when he dies on September 23.