Renaissance in Urbino

The Renaissance in Urbino was one of the most fundamental manifestations of the early Italian Renaissance.

During the lordship of Federico da Montefeltro, from 1444 to 1482,^[1] a fertile and vital artistic climate developed at the court, due to cultural exchanges with numerous centers on the peninsula and also abroad, especially the Flemish one. The cultural movement in Urbino was restricted within the court, around its highly refined prince, and although it elaborated highly advanced and avant-garde solutions, it did not generate a real local school, also due to the recourse mainly to foreign artists.^[1] Nevertheless, the Urbino style, by virtue of the very circulation of artists, experienced a wide diffusion, which made it one of the key variations of the Italian Renaissance. Among the basic characteristics of its humanistic culture were the unmistakable tone made of measure and rigor,^[1] which had protagonists such as Piero della Francesca, Luciano Laurana, Justus van Gent, Pedro Berruguete, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, and Fra Diamante.

According to French historian André Chastel, the Urbino Renaissance, called "mathematical," was one of the three fundamental components of the early Renaissance, along with the Florentine, "philological and philosophical," and the Paduan, "epigraphical and archaeological." Of the three it was the one "most closely related to the arts."^[2]

As the 16th century approached, the city, while remaining an island of highly refined culture, saw an impoverishment of its vitality in the figurative arts.^[1] Despite this, one of the great geniuses of the mature Renaissance, Raphael Sanzio, was born and took his very first steps in Urbino. From a cultural and literary point of view, on the other hand, Urbino remained for a long time one of the most stimulating environments in Italy, as witnessed by Baldassarre Castiglione, who set his Cortegiano at the court of Guidobaldo and Elisabetta da Montefeltro.^[3]