City Portraits

The first in The City Represented seminar series departs from the premise that depictions of cities enable an alternative understanding of their underlying structure and character. The seminar examines drawings and paintings depicting urban life and environments and correlates them to underlying ideologies. From the comparative analysis of artworks from different times and cultures, we extrapolate various conceptions of cities as they evolve over time. Students are encouraged to draw connections between the subject matter, the composition, and representational techniques employed, and the contexts of their circulation. Three analytical tracks are used for the analysis of city portraits. The first involves examining the purpose for which the images were created and the context of their circulation. In the second, we analyse the techniques used: medium, composition, viewpoint, framing, degrees of abstraction or figuration. Finally, we discuss the ideological register, the messages about cities and civic and social life the images convey. Thus, the course offers access to different ways of conceptualising the city to those usually made available in studying the history and theory of urban design.

This course took place during the Spring 2019 semester.

Hover Image: Formerly Piero della Francesca, Ideal City, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche Urbino