CLIL

The Ideal City

During the Renaissance rulers, philosophers and artists imagined models of ideal cities. Town planning had to implement principles of rationality, harmony, and proportion in accordance with the new culture that had the aim of creating a better world.

WARM-UP

ACTIVITY 1.A In your workbook draw a chart and indicate which words can be attributed to each of the images below. Some words can be attributed to both images.

  • Classical elements
  • medieval aspect
  • city of Siena
  • no human figures
  • horses
  • shops
  • arches
  • Renaissance palaces
  • towers
  • narrow streets
  • colonnades
  • maidens dancing
  • wide square
  • ideal city
  • clustered buildings
  • citizens
  • perspectival illusion
  • painting
  • primitive perspective
  • unrealistic atmosphere
images/482_a.webp
  1. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Good Government, 1338-39, fresco, Siena, Public Palace.
images/482_b.webp
  1. Artist from central Italy, Ideal City, a. 1480-90, tempera on wood, Urbino, National Gallery of Marche.

ACTIVITY 1.B Pair work. With a partner compare the two images by describing their similarities and differences using the words given in Activity 1.A.

BRAINSTORMING

ACTIVITY 2.A  Work in pairs and write three things you remember about this period in history.