The Ideal Cities and the status of images: enunciation and figuration of the urban space from the Middle Ages to Classicism

Abstract

The proposed text deals with certain aspects of figurative enunciation in the transition from the early Renaissance (still in many ways connected to the Middle Ages) to mature, sixteenth-century Classicism.
Since the space-time of any planar depiction cannot be analyzed and understood except with reference to its primary matrix consisting of the urban and territorial space-time represented in it, consideration of certain key aspects will be considered here.
The urban and architectural space-time within which the enunciation is inscribed, and that is evoked in the enunciation, with some remarks on the enunciator/enunciatee relationship in the representation of this space.
The history and conception of public space on the one hand, and the evolution of the internal/external relationship on the other, are the two essential drivers characterizing the relationship between city and architecture, to the point of meriting some brief remarks as to their developments in the postmodern period as well.
The philosophical/scientific paradigm of reference, to which the intentionality of the aesthetic function in the figurative language is linked.
The concept of “paradigm”, applied to figuration, in fact implies – and with greater evidence on an aesthetic level – the object’s depiction and at the same time the way in which the enunciator relates to the object and its space-time context.
For these aspects, an interesting and emblematic case study are the famous tables on the Ideal Cities, a different reading (and dating) of which is proposed, based on the above-mentioned analysis criteria. In particular, the table conserved in Urbino at Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, and the one at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, are compared and analyzed.
The paper’s organization raises a point of crisis in “Visual Semiotics” in its approach to the world of images. Although the chosen theme might not appear determinant in this regard, it is particularly significant, since it refers to the critical moment of transition from ancient to modern urban space. The historical evolution of the internal/external relationship in fact strengthens the need for a new and more complex approach to analysis of the language capable of interpreting it.