Searching for the Ideal City

In the elegant -former palace of the Duke of Urbino in the hilly, green Italian province of Le Marche, the painting La Città ideale hangs on the wall of one of the second-floor rooms. The long rectangular painting displays “The Ideal City” like a stage set. A grand circular temple-like structure sits dead centre in the painting, facing a public square that we, the viewers, seem to be on the far side of. On either side of that temple, colonnaded square buildings, which manage to combine regularity with variety, line the streets that disappear toward the rear of the canvas.

The painting evokes serenity and order with its simple lines, elegant forms and muted colours. It is also completely devoid of people, sending an enigmatic message that makes it the Mona Lisa of city-landscape paintings. Does it celebrate the architecture and the pleasing geometrical arrangement of space that...