The Italian embassy is arranging a lecture on the theme of the ideal Renaissance city in Portugal's capital, Lisbon, on Wednesday, to mark the 500th anniversary of artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci's death, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Claudio Giorgione, curator of the Leonardo da Vinci National Science and Technology Museum of Milan's Art and Science Department will give the commemorative talk entitled "Between Reality and Utopia: Leonardo da Vinci and the Ideal Renaissance City’, the statement said.
The theme of Giorgione's lecture is the debate that arose over the ideal city, which was widely debated in 15th century literature, from Filarete to Francesco di Giorgio Martini, the statement noted.
Leonardo too was fascinated by the idea of planning a city based on concrete functionality rather than elegance or other criteria. A set of his drawings for a new city dated between 1487 and 1490 depict the city’s ideal location, its road network, the shape of the buildings, its sewage system and many more details.
The drawings were planned for Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan and are contained in dense sheaf of papers from his Manuscript B which are housed in the Institut de France.
Claudio Giorgione has been working at Milan's Leonardo da Vinci National Science and Technology Museum since 1997. He is also the Museum’s coordinator of conservation and restoration projects. He is the curator of the 'Leonardo da Vinci. Science before Science' exhibition running at Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale from 13 March to 30 June.
Italy's ambassador in Lisbon, Uberto Vanni d’Archirafi, is organising Giorgione's lecture in association with the prestigious Portuguese Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, according to the statement.
