Apr. 22 – Italian art historian Cesare de Seta and French historian Maurice Aymard will discuss the Renaissance “portraits of the city” during Wednesday’s event at the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris. The conference is a preview of De Seta’s exhibition in Venice, held until May 18 at the Correr Museum, in “the image of the city in Europe from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment.” The show is a journey beginning in the 15th century across European cities, which become witnesses to the new political ambitions of popes, princes and kings. Cesare de Seta will present his book “Portraits of the city. From the Renaissance to the 18th century,” published by Einaudi. With Aymard, De Seta will retrace the history of the “furor urbis” that characterized the history of Europe in the Renaissance. Thanks to an extraordinary iconographic repertoire, De Seta and Aymard will “visit” cities that no longer exist, as was London before the Great Fire of 1666, or Paris before Baron Haussmann. Together, they will explore how cities changed until the 18th century, when urbanism became a common practice.
