At some point in the late 15th Century, three large paintings were created in Italy.

These strange paintings depict still scenes of calm, opulent civic centres. With little human life pictured, they show architecture dominating largely empty spaces. They are ordered, geometric and sparse. The three paintings are housed in Italy, Germany and the USA. All are referred to as the Ideal City paintings.

So what is a Renaissance Ideal City? 

Livia Lupi, a historian and author, joins to discuss why the paintings are so important. We talk about what it perhaps shows us about urban planning ideals of the time, how ‘the architect’ was born and why our popular understanding of the time period is built (at some level) on art historians' mythologising the past.

Livia’s website: www.Livialupi.com

The Ideal City paintings: 

Urbino:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ideal_City_-_Urbino.jpg

Berlin: 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francesco_di_Giorgio_Martini_(attributed)_-_Architectural_Veduta_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Baltimore:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fra_Carnevale_-_The_Ideal_City_-_Walters_37677.jpg

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