The Ducal Palace () is a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

building in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

city of

Urbino Urbino ( , ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Marche, southwest of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially und ...

in the

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

. One of the most important monuments in Italy, it's been listed as a

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

since 1998.

History

The construction of the Ducal Palace was begun for Duke Federico III da Montefeltro around the mid-fifteenth century by the Florentine Maso di Bartolomeo. The new construction included the pre-existing Palace of the Jole. The solid rock hillside salient was impregnable to siege but was problematic for carving out the foundation of a palace. Thus, a prominent fortress-builder,

Luciano Laurana Luciano Laurana (Lutiano Dellaurana, ) (c. 1420 – 1479) was a Dalmatian Italian architect and engineer from the historic Vrana settlement near the town of Zadar in Dalmatia, (today in Croatia, then part of the Republic of Venice) After educatio ...

, from

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

, was hired to build the substructure; but Laurana departed Urbino before the living quarters of the palace were begun. After Laurana, the designer or designers of the Ducal Palace are not known with certainty. Leading

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

architect

Donato Bramante Donato Bramante (1444 – 11 April 1514), born as Donato di Pascuccio d'Antonio and also known as Bramante Lazzari, was an Italian architect and painter. He introduced Renaissance architecture to Milan and the High Renaissance style to Rom ...

was a native of Urbino and may have worked on the completion of the palace. The Ducal Palace is famous as the setting of the conversations which

Baldassare Castiglione Baldassare Castiglione, Count of Casatico (; 6 December 1478 – 2 February 1529),Dates of birth and death, and cause of the latter, fro, ''Italica'', Rai International online. was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissan ...

represents as having taken place in the Hall of Vigils in 1507 in his '' Book of the Courtier''. The palace continued in use as a government building into the 20th century, housing municipal archives and offices, and public collections of antique inscriptions and sculpture (the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, see

below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor * Bottom (disambiguation) *Less than *Temperatures below freezing *Hell or underworld People with the surname * Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general * Fred Belo ...

). Restorations completed in 1985 have reopened the extensive subterranean network to visitors.

''Studiolo'' and twin chapels

The Ducal Palace featured several rooms that reflect Federico's devotion to Classical and humanistic studies and served his daily routine, which included visiting the palace's ''

lararium Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ) were Tutelary deity#Ancient Rome, guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an ama ...

'' and reading

Greek literature Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today. Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving wri ...

. These learned and explicitly pagan touches were atypical of a medieval palazzo.

''Studiolo''

A central element in this plan is the '' studiolo'' (a small study or cabinet for contemplation), a room measuring just 3.60 x 3.35m and facing away from the city of Urbino and towards the Duke's rural lands. Its beautifully executed

intarsia Intarsia is a form of wood inlaying that is similar to marquetry. The practice dates from before the seventh century AD. The technique inserts sections of wood (at times with contrasting ivory or bone, or mother-of-pearl) within the solid wood ...

work, surrounding the room's occupant with ''

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

'' shelves, benches, and half-open

latticework __NOTOC__ Latticework is an openwork framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a grid or weave. Latticework may be functional &nd ...

doors displaying symbolic objects representing the

Liberal Arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

, is the single most famous example of this Italian craft of inlay. The benches hold musical instruments, and the shelves contain representations of books and musical scores, scientific instruments (including an

astrolabe An astrolabe (; ; ) is an astronomy, astronomical list of astronomical instruments, instrument dating to ancient times. It serves as a star chart and Model#Physical model, physical model of the visible celestial sphere, half-dome of the sky. It ...

and an

armillary sphere An armillary sphere (variations are known as spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the sky (on the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines o ...

), study furnishings (including a writing desk and an hourglass), weapons and armor, and various other objects (e.g. parrots in cages and a ''

mazzocchio A chaperon ( or ; Middle French: ''chaperon'') was a form of Hood (headgear), hood or, later, a highly versatile hat worn by men and women in all parts of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Initially a utilitarian garment, it first grew a long ...

''). Image:Urbino_studiolo_1.jpg, Intarsia paneling of the ''studiolo'' Image:Urbino_studiolo_2.jpg, Astronomical instruments and ''mazzocchio'' Image:Urbino_studiolo_3.jpg, A mechanical clock The ''studiolo'' also features iconic representations of several persons, both contemporary and historical. On the intarsia panels are depicted statues of Federico in scholarly attire and of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Above the intarsia panels are portraits of great authors by

Joos van Wassenhove Justus van Gent or Joos van Wassenhove () was an Early Netherlandish painter, perhaps from Ghent, who after training and working in Flanders later moved to Italy where he worked for Federico da Montefeltro, duke of Urbino, and was known as Gi ...

(with reworking by

Pedro Berruguete Pedro Berruguete (c. 1450 – 1504) was a Spanish painter whose art is regarded as a transitional style between Gothic art, Gothic and Renaissance art. Berruguete most famously created paintings of the first few years of the Inquisition and of ...

): The upper register (shown in the diagram's outside rows and columns) presents Classical and humanistic writers, as opposed to the religious figures (broadly speaking) of the lower register (inside).

Chapel of Absolution and Temple of the Muses

Downstairs from the ''studiolo'' are a twinned pair of chapels, one Christian and one pagan. The vestibule leading to them emphasizes their complementarity with this inscribed

elegiac couplet The elegiac couplet or elegiac distich is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic. Roman poets, particularly Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, adopted the same form in L ...

: The Temple of the Muses, which may have been used as the personal ''studiolo'' of Federico's son Guidobaldo, originally featured paintings of the Muses as "sober musicians" that are perhaps the work of Giovanni Santi.Godwin, p. 91.

Galleria Nazionale delle Marche

The Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (National Gallery of the Marche), housed in the palace, is one of the most important collections of

art in the world. It includes important works by artists such as

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

, Van Wassenhove (a ''Last Supper'' with portraits of the Montefeltro family and the court),

Melozzo da Forlì Melozzo da Forlì ( – 8 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. His fresco paintings are notable for the use of foreshortening. He was the most important member of the Forlì painting school. Biography Melozzo was s ...

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca ( , ; ; ; – 12 October 1492) was an Italian Renaissance painter, Italian painter, mathematician and List of geometers, geometer of the Early Renaissance, nowadays chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is charact ...

(with the famous ''

Flagellation Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, Birching, rods, Switch (rod), switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, floggin ...

''),

Paolo Uccello Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian Renaissance painter and mathematician from Florence who was notable for his pioneering work on visual Perspective (graphical), perspective in art. In his book ''Liv ...

Timoteo Viti Timoteo Viti (Urbino, 1469 – 1523, Urbino), sometimes called Timoteo della Viti or Timoteo da Urbino, was an Italian Renaissance painter, who was closely associated with Raphael, who was fourteen years his junior. Career Born in Urbino, Viti was ...

, and other 15th-century artists, as well as a late ''Resurrection'' by

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

Selected highlights

Image:Formerly Piero della Francesca - Ideal City - WGA17633 - Galleria Nazionale delle Marche Urbino.jpg, Attributed to Piero della Francesca
Ideal City, 60 x 200 cm Image:Raffael 043.jpg, Raphael
La Muta, 64 x 48 cm Image:Piero_della_Francesca_042_Flagellation.jpg, Piero della Francesca
Flagellation, 59 x 82 cm. Image:Madonna di Senigallia.jpg, Piero della Francesca
Madonna di Senigallia, 61 x 53 cm. Image:Titian - The Resurrection.jpg, Titian
Resurrection, 163 x 104 cm Image:Giusto di gand, comunione degli apostoli, 1473-1474.jpg,

Institution of Eucharist, 331 x 335 cm. Image:Titian LastSupper c1544 Urbino.jpg,

Last Supper, 163 x 104 cm. Image:Orazio gentileschi, Vision of St Francesca Romana.jpg,

Orazio Gentileschi Orazio Lomi Gentileschi (; 1563 – 7 February 1639) was an Italian painter. Born in Tuscany, he began his career in Rome, painting in a Mannerist style, much of his work consisting of painting the figures within the decorative schemes of other ...

Vision of St. Francesca Romana Image:Paolo Uccello - Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 2) - WGA23223.jpg, Paolo Uccello
Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 2), 43 x 58 cm Image:Luca signorelli, crocifissione, urbino, gnm.jpg, Luca Signorelli
Crucifixion, 144 x 89 cm. Image:Paolo Uccello - Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 4) - WGA23225.jpg,

Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 4), 43 x 58 cm Image:Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6359445.jpg, Federico Barocci
Virgin and Child with Saints, 283 x 190 cm. Image:Paolo Uccello - Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 6) - WGA23227.jpg, Paolo Uccello
Miracle of the Desecrated Host (Scene 6), 43 x 58 cm

References

Sources

* Luciano Cheles,
The Studiolo of Urbino: An Iconographic Investigation
' (Penn State Press, 1986) * Robert Kirkbride,

' (Columbia University Press, 2008)

External links

Galleria Nazionale delle Marche - Official website
{{Authority control Ducale, Urbino Urbino Renaissance architecture in le Marche 15th-century establishments in Italy Art museums and galleries in Marche Museums in Urbino National museums of Italy Ducal Palace, Urbino Duchy of Urbino