Centralized buildings in paintings and drawings of the Italian Renaissance.

摘要

Italian Renaissance architects and painters were fascinated by buildings with centralized plans (circles, regular polygons, Greek crosses). Though the pursuit of this interest lead to the revival of antique models widely associated with paganism, the Italian artists were able to reinterpret centralized structures in terms of Christian concepts and include centralized buildings in compositions that project a Christian world view.;The thesis explores the genre of paintings known as "ideal cities," in which centralized structures often figure prominently. Based on an iconological analysis of a representative selection of works, the thesis demonstrates the wide reach of the "ideal city" theme and identifies a dialectically related genre--tentatively termed the "city of dread"--that shows the opposite of the "ideal city.".