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Ideal Cities of the Renaissance: Two Models of Utopia

33-42 minutes

Ever since Plato first entertained the concept of the utopian city in Republic, mankind has been on a
quest to develop, whether politically or architecturally, an ideal living space. The focus of this essay
shall be to evaluate two opposing architectural conceptions of the ideal city that arose in the second
half of the Quattrocento. These two plans, the first proposed by Alberti and the second by Filarete, are
important in that they are among the first works that build cities specific to their ideal political
structures, and thereby combine the two elements that are necessary for proper living. In order to
understand the two plans in their entirety, it is important to first look to Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
(Vitruvius) and his 10 book treatise on architecture. While Vitruvius’ work does not include any
theorizing about the ideal political structure of the city, it does serve as a heavy precedent for Alberti’s
writing, which subsequently inspired Filarete. After providing a brief history of the ideal city, both in
structure and politics, this essay will look to the panels in Urbino, Baltimore, and Berlin as imagined
constructions of the writers’ cities.

Plato and Atlantis

Living in Athens from 428-348 BCE, Plato laid out most of the political foundation for the ideal city in
Republic and Laws and structural foundation in Timaeus and Critias. In Republic Plato envisions a
city based on virtue and justice and provides multiple styles of rule. His ideal political structure is
clearly the heavenly model of rule in which the ruler is a philosopher-king who has perfect
conceptions of form in mind. While theoretically ideal, Plato rejects the philosopher-king, making the
case that solitude leads to compulsion (and thereby not enlightened) rule. He also looks to democracy,
but makes the claim that tyranny follows naturally from democracy and therefore neither is ideal. The
ideal population, Plato claimed was split in three like the mind of a man. One part would be moderate
and deal with reason (the political class), the second would repel injury with force (the military class)
and the third would prepare and supply nourishment for the rest. He also posits that in order to
maintain social mobility, no private property should be allowed.

In his later works, Timaeus and Critias (360 BCE), Critias and Timaeus tell the story of Solon’s visit
to Egypt where he heard of Atlantis. According to the Egyptians, in the early days of the world, the
Gods had divided the land amongst themselves. Upon falling in love with Cleito, a mortal, Poseidon
built a palace for her and their ten children. The palace, carved out of a mountain was surrounded by
three circular moats and three rings of land (Figure 1). The island was then split into ten different
districts, one for each of Cleito’s children to administer and rule. The ten kings would assemble in the
central palace once a year to discuss common affairs and sacrifice to Poseidon. This structure lasted
for many generations until war with the Athenians and the Egyptians, which angered the gods and
cause Atlantis to sink into the ocean. While Atlantis was meant to resemble the architecturally and
politically ideal city, Critias and Timaeus very clearly show that such an arrangement never lasts too
long.

Vitruvius

While not much is known about Vitruvius, it is known that he was a military engineer and architect
specializing in artillery war machines. He lived from around the end of the Roman republic through at
least the first Emperor, Octavian, to which his 10 books on architecture, De Architectura, are said to
be dedicated to. While none of his buildings remain, but De Architectura provides the first written
account on architectural theory.
In his first treatise, which is heavily used in this essay, Vitruvius writes about the education of the
architect, the fundamental principles of architecture and the development of a city. Regarding the
education of the architect, Vitruvius believes that an architect should be well versed in a wide range of
skills, most importantly of which are history and mathematics. Vitruvius’ later books focus
respectively on building materials, mathematics and proportion in temple building, architectural
orders, civil buildings, domestic buildings, decorative work, methods and instruments for finding
water, sciences that influence architecture, and the construction of machines. Vitruvius is famous for
asserting in his third book, that a building should be considered for its strength (firmitas),
convenience (utilitas) and beauty (venustas), a theory that has been called the “ABC of architecture”.
Throughout his treatise, it is evident that Vitruvius only sees building as a design problem and not a
political one.

Leon Battista Alberti

Leon Battista Alberti, was a Renaissance era humanist author known for his work in painting,
architecture, poetry, philosophy and cryptography living from 1404 to 1472. Alberti was born in
Genoa to Florentine aristocrat who had been exiled. After studying law in Bologna, he moved to Rome
in 1432, joining the papal order to study ancient Roman ruins. During his time there he wrote Della
Pittura, a treatise on painting which served as a technical manual for the study of art including a
heavy focus on perspective. While in Rome Alberti gained a deep interest in architecture and city
structures.

Challenged by Petrarch’s claim that “to submit oneself to life in the city is to endanger one’s soul,”

# Alberti embarked on a quest to outline a city that could fit his Humanist philosophies (Westfall).
Building off of Vitruvius’ De Architectura, Leonardo Bruni’s emphasis on Florentine forms and Plato’s
Republic, Alberti wrote De Re Aedifacatoria, his own 10 book treatise on architecture, completed in
1454. In it, he follows Vitruvius’ form, but focuses more on lineamenta, the proportional and
geometrical basis of buildings. Due to his belief that buildings are miniature cities, we can extrapolate
these lineamenta to cities. In the political parts of his treatise, Alberti outlines a system based on
republicanism which would maximize virtue and utility in the city. Following Plato’s lead, he also
describes the tyrant (and his ideal city), and the ideal cosmic ruler, which he doesn’t focus on heavily
due to its perceived impossibility (philosopher-king in Plato).

Alberti believed that the “occasion and reason for building cities is that the inhabitants may dwell in
them in peace, and, as far as possible, may be free of all inconveniences and molestations” and that
architecture is meant to satisfy social needs and desires. Using these two views in De Re
Aedifacatoria, heprovided the first unified structure of an ideal city, one with political and social
institutions, urban forms, physical structures, and personal activity (Westfall).

Filarete

Filarete, born in 1400 in Florence as Antonio Averlino, was a renaissance architect and sculptor who
wrote a treatise on architecture to challenge that of Alberti. After working for some time as a
goldsmith and as a bronze chaser in Ghiberti’s shop, where he received the pseudonym Filarete (lover
of Virtue), Averlino moved from Florence to Rome where he created the bronze doors for St. Peter’s
Basilica. He was expelled from Rome in 1448 after attempting to steal the head of John the Baptist
and other holy relics (so much for “lover of virtue”). By 1451, he had settled in Milan where in an
attempt to ingratiate himself with the Duke, Francesco Sforza, he wrote his Libro Architettonico or
Trattato di Architettura to develop a case for the dukedom as the ideal political structure. Against
the “new architecture monopoly” of Florence and the republicans, he proposed an alternative to show
that given the right master architect (read Filarete), Milan could be just as great as Florence. Filarete
draws heavily from Alberti, but frames his argument like Vitruvius in humbling himself before his
master and defining the architects task as providing fame for the Duke, not the architect himself.
Architecture, he claimed, was like a man in that it is the product of the father who lays the seed (the
Duke) and the mother (the Architect) who nourishes and develops the child to carry on the father’s
fame. For Filarete it seemed, defining a new notion of architecture, was not only politically important,
but also important to his own career trajectory.

While Filarete and Alberti had different conceptions about the nature of architecture and the ideal
city, they set off a chain reaction of architectural theory in Europe, leading other writer/architects like
Durer, Da Vinci, and even Piranesi to theorize as to the nature of ideal forms.

Vitruvius – De Architectura
In his treatise, Vitruvius goes to great lengths to set up a clear process for setting up his idea city
based on cosmic and mathematical forces. Starting with the site space, Vitruvius recommends
Augustus to experiment with the health of a particular site before deciding to build a city. To do this,
he says, the architect must allow cows to graze on the land for a period of months and upon the end of
the period, those cows must be dissected so as to ascertain the health of their livers and kidneys.
Should their organs look healthy, the site would be good for human use, otherwise, a new site should
be chosen and the experiment carried out again.

Once the health of the site is guaranteed, Vitruvius believes that the main purpose of the city is to
protect its citizens (and more importantly the duke) from nature. By this reasoning, it seems as
though for Vitruvius, walls make the city, so the first building project should be securing walls around
the city. Once the walls are set up, preferably in a circular way to provide maximum protection for the
citizens (since circular towns are harder for enemies to seize), the city-builder continues on the
mission to provide health for the citizens by developing a street plan to counteract the dangerous
forces of the wind. Vitruvius develops a sun tracking method to determine the correct orientation of
the eight winds, and once the direction is calculated, towers are built on the wall to provide entry
points for the winds and further protection for the city’s citizens (figure 2). From these wind towers to
the center of the building, streets would be drawn to provide transportation throughout the city
(figure 3).From these streets, alleyways were drawn. After drawing the streets and alleyways, the city
could begin to be filled with public buildings. These buildings should be located by function, for
example, the forum should be placed wherever commerce is most easily conducted (in the case of a
city by the sea, at the port), and temples, much like in Plato’s Atlantis, are placed throughout the city
based on their individual requirements. Bacilica’s are meant to be placed near the business men, and
therefore close to the forum, and Palestra’s, which are religious cloister schools should be placed far
away from shops and the bad odor and loiterers of the center city so as to provide for a serious place
for the children of the poor to be educated. Despite clearly laying out plans for all of these buildings,
including house plans (figure 4), bathes, and harbors, Vitruvius is never clear about the explicit
relationship that buildings have to the streets or squares or whether they are meant to satisfy any
social requirements the citizens of the city might have. As such, Vitruvius’ plan lacks some of the
clarity that comes about with Alberti’s and Filarete’s subsequent proposals.

Alberti – De Re Aedifacatoria

For Alberti, the imagined city was, as previously mentioned, a house at large, and the house, a city in
miniature. For him, the three most important elements were beauty (by which I mean order which
serves as a reminder of God), structural power over nature, and the fulfilment of the social
requirement of the citizens, in that order. This same structure will come up again in the section on
politics. For Vitruvius, beauty was “a harmony of all the parts in their whole, fitted together with such
proportion and connection, that nothing could be added, diminished, or altered but for the worse.”
Order and beauty led to health, safety, convenience and pleasure. Surrounding the city, like in
Vitruvius’ city, were walls. For Alberti, these walls were dedicated to the defense of the city’s liberty,
but he was worried that having walls would lead to citizen sedition, so he deferred the problem the
political system that he set up. It is believed that the walls were also round and that much of Alberti’s
city was derived from Plato, who was referenced in De Re Aedifacatoria.

Alberti believed that the city should be mostly open space to include room for modular activities to
fulfill both citizen and public activities. His emphasis on open space was probably derived from his
heavily articulated view that a building’s function is determined by its social usefulness and not the
architect, and that therefore, the organization of society becomes more important than the
architectural practice. When he did focus on building’s his mentality was that the beauty of the
building extrapolates out to the city, so each building should be constructed with as much attention to
order as possible.

Alberti separated his population in a way that made sense to promote order, developing concepts of
what patrician squares should look like, including small piazzas with loggia—which he then
constructed in Palazzo Rucellai (figure 5) in Rome. He placed churches near theaters, the circus, and
other centers of vice to draw the public from vice to virtue and ignorance to knowledge. All of his
temples were meant to be round, since “nature delights principally in round figures” and for those
which weren’t, other perfect platonic forms had to be chosen. For most of his other building plans and
proportions, he draws heavily from Vitruvius, for example, his Palestras. He also included plans for a
prison which was not meant to be shut up in frightful subterranean caverns, but rather a place of
meditation where criminals (naturally depending on the severity of their crime) could come to
reintegrate themselves. The most critical part of Alberti’s city, however, was the central temple. Meant
to be round in construction, the temple was a place where each man was alone with the harmony of
the cosmos, and the only place where the cosmos was to be entirely controlled by him, the architect.

Interesting about Alberti’s description of the ideal city, is that much like Plato in Republic, he sees a
lot to be learned from the description of different political structures and the subsequent physical
structures. Alberti not only provides the ideal republican city, which has been described above, but
also some insight into the very similar tyrannical and monarchical cities. The former described as
providing for himself at the cost of his people, and the latter, akin to Plato’s philosopher king, an ideal
(but unlikely) method of rule. Both cities contain high walls and a castello on those walls. In the king’s
case, the castello is to be placed near the theaters so that the king may be near his people. In the
tyrant’s case, the castello is far from the people in a military complex with large towers for the ruler to
learn of commotion in his city (figure 6). The city also contains walls internally to defend from both
threats a tyrant can face – those being internal and external. These city structures serve to inform
Filarete as he works to develop the ideal ducal city, where the fame and protection of the duke
becomes a primary objective.

Filarete – Trattato di Architettura

Much like Alberti and Vitruvius, Filarete bases the effectiveness of architecture on the elements of
beauty function and stability. For him, beauty or bellezza comes from lavish decoration and expensive
material provided by the duke for the architect (as a way of demonstrating wealth), function or
hutilita is solely decided by the duke, and stability or etternita is decided by the architect. Filarete,
more so than Alberti, emphasized the Vitruvian fixation on human geometry. For him, everything
must be derived from the “figure and form of man,” meaning, among other things, that buildings and
cities must have the same number of entrances and exits as the man. This manifests itself in a sewage
description that is at times more complete than that of the location and order of buildings. As with
Alberti, the circle is of great import, but with Filarete, there is specific narrative of the Vitruvian man,
where the city is built as the circle that circumscribes the man (figure 7). In the ducal city, walls are to
be built first, following the circle. From there, a castello is to be built on the city walls for the duke,
prior to any civic structure. After the construction of the castello, there are two possible
interpretations for Filarete’s designs. In the ideal design, he follows the Vitruvian notion of the winds,
naming 8 towers on the city walls and creating 16 radial streets to the walls and their midpoints from
the central plaza. In the second form, more focused on pleasing Duke Francesco Sforza of Milan, there
is a 3 by 3 grid with a labyrinth surrounding it to protect the duke (figure 8). In the radial plan, a
military precinct is to be built around the duke’s residence, along with a central tower for surveying
the citizens and controlling the city. The castello is to be set up to protect the duke from both internal
and external enemies, and therefore requires twice the fortification.

While Alberti and Vitruvius described their ideal cities loosely, Filarete was very pointed in
developing and actual city plan and structure. Channeling his ideas through the invented city of
Sforzinda (named aptly after the Duke), Filarete solidifies his work and makes analysis easier.
Sforzinda, built radially follows the Albertian and Platonic plan, but since the duke worries more
about protection, has been altered to fit a more defensive role. Splitting the circle into two squares
rotated 45 degrees about a central point, Filarete provides for better protection, giving the city guard
two vantage points over any attacker. Sforzinda, building off the radial plan discussed above, would
include 16 main streets radiating from the central point. Halfway from these streets to the city walls
would be an open square, eight of which would contain a church (figure 9). Everything was built to
both protect the city from its surroundings and allow the duke to maintain order easily.

The central area of Sforzinda has two buildings worthy of note, a massive church, and the house of
virtue and vice. While Alberti’s temple was meant to empower the human to live virtuously, Filarete’s
is meant to be a “massive machine for saving souls.” This church would occupy a large amount of
space, and my entering it, all citizens would be absolved of sin (unclear as to whether the church or
the Duke was doing the absolving). This is meant, of course, so that the citizens have no worries that
might cause them to challenge the ducal authority. The house of virtue and vice is a structure
including a central building and two towers. Upon entering the square central building, citizens are
free to go into a tower of virtue, through an unspectacular door, or enter a large and forbidding,
clearly labeled door to the tower of vice. The tower of virtue was split into seven sections, one for each
of the seven liberal arts, where instructors could teach the virtuous souls of the city. The tower of vice
on the other hand, had three levels, one for Venus and Bacchus (where general debauchery and
prostitution occurred), one for prisoners of the city, and the last one for the officials who administered
the affairs of the tower. The prison (along with a secondary one in the dungeon of the castello, were
meant to be hideous and provide “enough punishment here on earth to give men a taste of hell.” It is
interesting to note that while the house of vice contained its own administrators and allowed citizens
to choose their own path, it was slightly pointless within the city of Sforza since the church already
absolved all visitors and all administrators were banned from the duke’s court. Sforzinda shows the
distinct view of a city fit for the comfort and empowerment of one and the distraction of the masses,
and therefore is successful in its attempt to build a ducal city.

For renaissance architects like Alberti and Filarete, cities relied on much more than physical structure
due to an increased amount of experimentation and competition between political philosophies. To
better understand the role that structure and idealism plays in their treatises, it is important to gain a
deeper view of their proposed governing bodies.

Alberti’s Republic

For Alberti, who had already discussed political theory in his myths Teogerio and Momus, developing
an architecture that could realize his thoughts became an important pursuit. He draws from multiple
sources when developing the political structure for his city. Drawing from his humanist roots, he
looks to Salutati who said that “the foundation of our government is the parity and equality of the
citizens… All of our laws tend only to this, that the citizens are equal, because true liberty has its roots
only in equality.” Due to his pattern of doing things al’antica, he then looks to the republic, both its
Roman precedent and Plato’s writing’s which he cites 19 times. For Alberti the humanist, personal
virtue is the most important thing an individual can seek, and as such he develops a city in which
virtue is obtained by participation in the public affairs of the city. Pulling from Plato who outlined a
three-part government with moneymakers, helpers and councilors, Alberti creates three outlets for
the pursuit of virtue, the intellectual class, consisting of liberal artists and the wise older men who
would rule the council and regulate city affairs, the execution branch, which included architects and
captains who would carry out orders, and the wealthy branch which could pursue virtue by funding
public works. These three branches would most likely overlap since in many cases, citizens of the
republic fell under all three categories. The councilors were to meet near the center of the city where
the circular temple was situated and where they could be seen by all.

For Alberti, much like for Plato, the ideal ruler was the non-existent philosopher-king. As the history
of Florence progressed and Cosimo de Medici returned from exile in 1434, he began dominating all
branches of the Florentine republic, slowly turning it into a tyranny. Forgetting their own objections
to tyranny, the Florentine people (among them Alberti), began to believe that Medici was indeed the
philosopher king they were looking for, but the appearance of a republic remained. As Alberti aged he
began to lose sight of his political standing, playing a role in both the northern tyrannical courts (of
Urbino and Milan) and the papacy.

Filarete’s Dukedom

While the republic had long been a subject of study, the ducal city did not really come into the
limelight of architectural theory until Alberti had fully developed its republican counterpart. Drawn to
the image of the duke as a master of justice, and unable to see the distinction between tyrant and
duke, Filarete built his architectural plan around the Duke of Milan. Channeling the ideas of
Conversino of Padua, who said that “The more similar the creature’s condition is to that of its creator,
the more beautiful, orderly and perfect the creature is in life. Consequently, since the creator and the
ruler of all things is one, government by one man is in my opinion preferable because of its greater
conformity to the universe than any other form of government,” Filarete viewed the duke as divine.
For him, there was only one citizen in the city, the Duke, who was responsible for peace, order,
harmony and tranquility. The duke governed groups in charge of knowledge, craft and arms, and his
command, much like the honeybee’s led to quick and effective execution by his inferiors. As such the
entirety of the ideal ducal city was focused on comfort for the duke to command and efficiency for his
inferiors to enact.

The Ideal city panels, known here as the “Urbino Perspectives” are a set of three tempera panels with
have been said to depict the ideal city, one held in Urbino, one in Balitmore, and one in Berlin. While
the authorship of these panels is still disputed, with many, including Richard Krautheimer, believing
they were at least foundationally designed by Alberti others by Alberti’s friends in the court of Duke
Federico in Urbino, and yet other’s by completely separate artists, these works are great examples of
different aspects that exist within the ideal cities of Filarete and Alberti. The panels, which exhibit an
incredible mastery over perspective and mathematics further support the renaissance narrative that a
distinct set of geometric forms are ideal. While these works do in some places, feature humans, it is
thought that they were added after the fact, making many, including Krautheimer to believe that they
were initially developed as backdrops for theater.
Panel of Urbino

The panel held in Urbino (figure 11) depicts an image which we will consider in light of Alberti’s ideal
republican city. The panel is a brilliant perspective of a large piazza. Directly in front of the viewpoint
lies a large domed circular building flanked on both sides by two palaces. Behind the palaces are more
modest homes. In order to fully understand the connections between the panel and Alberti’s ideal
city, it is helpful to look at the 3D rendering of the scene constructed by Lagopoulus who reversed the
perspective (figure 12). From the rendering, it is clear that the large circular structure is the central
axis of the scene. Furthermore, by looking at the original image, it is evident that this structure serves
some religious purpose given the cross that tops the dome. Given the front portico, and the views of
the two side porticos, it can be assumed that this building has a centralized plan, and by following the
perspectival lines on the painting, it is clear that not only is the building the center of the city, but the
center of the building is the origin point of the perspective. This construction is in line with the
Albertian city model which contains a temple for all citizens at the center.

Moving on to the side buildings, the appearance of open loggias on both the bottom floor of the front
right building and the bottom and top floors of the front left building indicate that surrounding the
central temple are the homes of the intellectual class and the mercantile (or wealthy class). The
appearance of rhythmic bays on either side could further indicate Alberti’s place in the construction of
the scene when compared to Palazzo Rucellai (figure 5). The careful mathematics in the piece are also
indicative of Alberti’s fixation on lineamenta. Due to its orderly and accurate details, it makes sense to
view the panel of Urbino as a depiction of Alberti’s classic utopia. What is ironic, however, is that
given its lack of people and Alberti’s point that the citizens make the city, it is possible for this city to
occupy a dystopian space as well.

Panel of Baltimore

The panel held in Baltimore (figure 13) depicts an image which we will consider in light of both
Filarete’s ideal ducal city and Alberti’s dystopia. The scene depicts another city center which consists
of a lowered fountain and four statues in the foreground, palaces on either side in the middle-ground
of the composition, and in the central axis, a set of three buildings, a stadium or theater on the left, a
triumphal arch in the center, and an octagonal church akin to the baptistery in Florence on the right.
Given the equal size of the three in the composition, it can be assumed that the triumphal arch is
actually closer to the viewer than the stadium and the church.

Beginning with the foreground, there are four statues surrounding the fountain, given their attributes,
it has been analyzed that these four statues are temperance diluting wine with water in the left back
position, fortitude in the front right position pointing across to justice with an empty hand in the
position of holding scales and a raised sword, and prudence in the back right position. Justice in
particular is interesting due to her raised sword which points to a political structure that values
forceful justice, she also lacks scales, showing that a key aspect of justice is missing from the city. In
the center of the fountain is a fifth figure, a putto meant to symbolize abundance and fame. The
placement of such a figure in the fountain could symbolize that the duke, or central figure in the
composition will provide abundance and fame to the citizens (who all draw from the fountain).

Moving to the background, the placement of a triumphal arch with equestrian battle scenes is
emblematic of physical might, a trait that would more easily be associated with a tyranny than a
political system that values equality. The centrality of the arch, specifically when compared to the
placement of a religious building in a secondary position would point to a culture that values might
and glory more than it values religion (i.e. religion is quite literally not central to the city) which is
true to Filarete’s ideal city where salvation is taken for granted. In the placement of the stadium or
theater on the same level as the church, we see elements of both Filarete and Alberti. In Alberti’s case,
churches were placed near the theater to draw citizens from vice to virtue, whereas in Filarete’s they
were part of the same compound in the house of vice and virtue. Looking at figure 14, which zooms in
through the triumphal arch, the wall of the city begins to appear, but more importantly the duke’s
castello, including the watch tower. Comparing the perspectives of Urbino, it is clear that the artist
was well aware of the arguments for both the ideal ducal city and the ideal republican city, and the
commissioner, most likely Duke Federico, thought it important to dedicate resources to their
development. While neither of the panels depict a real city, it is likely that if both Filarete and Alberti
had enough time and money to develop their versions of the ideal city, they might look something
similar to what we see in both paintings at their pristine states, but would begin to transform as soon
as the imperfections of the human leadership they were built for were allowed to enter and interact
with the city.
Throughout the works of Plato, Vitruvius, Alberti and Filarete it becomes evident that all of these
figures when interested in developing ideal living conditions for humanity turned to the importance of
order and organization. While it is possible to organize architecture to create perfect order spacio-
aesthetically, it becomes harder to manage the state of such an order when they are being built for
use. Carrol Westfall, in an essay on this topic, pointed out that “the best is what is closest to the
perfect and can be realized. When you define and realize that best, that is what we might call the
ideal.” And while we may call the works of the aforementioned architects works of the “ideal city”,
they are still in some way works of the best city and cannot be considered ideal until realized in space.
Much credit should be given to them, however, for opening up this field of inquiry. Inspiring a long
line of theory and art, the work towards attaining the ideal has passed hands from these greats to
figures like Durer who helped create more rectilinear cities, Da Vinci who theorized about the
separation of social classes, and Piranesi who challenged the ideals of order. These utopians and
dystopians’ early work gave birth to the modern class of urban theorizes from Le Corbusier and
Robert Moses to Jane Jacobs and will continue to influence our understandings and interpretations of
our cities and societies.

Figure 1. A diagram of the island of Atlantis (original source unknown).

Figure 2. An elevation of a wind tower meant to be on the Vitruvian city walls. (Source: Stuart &
Revetts’s “The Antiquities of Athens (Vol.I)”, 1762).
Figure 3. The Vitruvian plan for city streets based on the eight winds (Source: Pollio, Marcus
Vitruvius, and Morris H. Morgan)

Figure 4. The Vitruvian plan for a patrician’s house (Source: Pollio, Marcus Vitruvius, and Morris H.
Morgan)

Figure 5. Palazzo Rucellai by Alberti (Source: David Simchock Photography)

Figure 6. Alberti’s tyrannical city (Source: Lagoupolus)

Figure 7. Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man showing the development of the circle as the ideal form (Source:
Da Vinci)

Figure 8. Filarete’s labrynthine city for Duke Sforza (Source: Kuilman)

Figure 9. A plan of Sforzinda including the winds, walls, streets, central city, squares, and ducal
palace (Source: Kuilman)
Figure 10. The Urbino Perspective held in Berlin, depicting a Haven (Source: Daidalos #25 Sept 15
1987 – Yale University Library)

Figure 11. The panel of Urbino (Source: R: Daidalos #25, Sept. 15, 1987 – Yale University Library)

Figure 12. A 3D rendering of the scene in the Urbino Panel (Source: Lagoupolus)

Figure 13. The panel of Baltimore (Source: R:B: Chastel, the Myth of the Renaissance – Yale
University Library)
Figure 14. A zoomed in version of Figure 13, featuring the castello (Source: Postcard Property H
Chillman – Yale University Library)

Alberti, Leon Battista. On the art of building in ten books. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988.

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