Leonardo's vision of perfect city revealed
New show spotlights forgotten project for King Francis I
16 July, 17:07
(ANSA) - Florence - Leonardo da Vinci's vision of the perfect French capital, designed for King Francis I but never built, is spotlighted in a new exhibition.
The event is being staged in the central French town of Romorantin-Lanthenay, which Leonardo envisaged transforming into Europe's greatest city.
This is the first exhibition devoted entirely to this forgotten project of the Renaissance genius, bringing together drawings, sketches and a host of documentation, much of which only unearthed in recent years.
"It all began with a book written in 1972 by Carlo Pedretti, the world's leading expert on Leonardo da Vinci," explained curator Pascal Brioist, a professor at the Renaissance Higher Studies Institute in the French city of Tours.
Inspired by the book, 'The Royal Palace at Romorantin', Brioist began researching the project in earnest, helped by Romorantin-Lanthenay's cultural heritage director, Martine Vallon. "The real surprise was finding actual traces of this project in municipal archives," he said. "Romorantin as the French capital was not just an idea but a concrete development for which the actual foundations were laid".
Studying the town's accounts for the period 1515-1519, Brioist discovered that terracing work in the area had begun during that period, when Leonardo living there. Between 1517 and 1519, the year of his death, Leonardo produced a whole series of different designs for the royal palace but archive documents indicate the eventual location selected for the palace was a 400-square-metre plot of land next to the River Sauldre. The land chosen was identified using the town's old land registry, which also confirmed the size of the project. Scans of the land followed up by archaeological excavations revealed underground limestone foundations, showing that building work had started on the complex. Leonardo's drawings suggest the city was to have included palaces and gardens located on either side of the river and spanned by two bridges.
"We are faced with pages of designs, drawings and plans that not only envisioned an immense castle but also a genuine, fully developed riverside city," said Brioist.
A key element of the plan was an entire overhaul of the region's waterways. Leonardo planned a network of canals, powered by watermills and designed to facilitate movement, carry away waste, reduce disease and boost trade to the area.
Other sketches reveal an extremely advanced stable complex, complete with automatic feeding troughs and cleaning systems. "Hygiene was a central concern of Leonardo's, as he was worried about preventing the spread of epidemics," said Brioist.
The Italian designer arrived in France in 1516, at the age of 64, where he was immediately appointed 'first painter, engineer and architect' to Francis I.
Work on the ideal city ground to an abrupt halt in 1519, the year of Leonardo's death. "Different sources argue over the cause of the halt, with many blaming an epidemic in the area," said Brioist. Others have suggested funds were running short for Francis I, who started work on another major project, the Chateau de Chambord, that same year.
But Brioist believes the dream of Romorantin Palace was impossible to realise without the help of its creator. "The most probable reason why the king's project was never completed is simply because the Tuscan master was the only person able to grasp and coordinate such a massive undertaking," said Brioist. The exhibition is divided between the Museum of Sologne and the Automobile Matra Museum, both in Romorantin-Lanthenay, and runs until January 30, 2011.
