Teatro all’Antica in Sabbioneta: the first permanent theater of the modern era

The concept of the ideal city first flourished in ancient times, but it was in the Renaissance that it became the focus of debate and came to be seen as the hub of human activity. This theme  brought forth a series of proposals, some utopian in nature, conceptualized in famous paintings such as the one displayed at the National Gallery of Marche, in Urbino, while other proposals were more concrete and realistic, including Sabbioneta, a small town not far from Mantua. The city dates back to Roman times, but was transformed through a project by Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga who, from 1554 to 1591 (the year of his death), created a polygon-shaped ring wall, with only two gates, to encircle the city. Inside the bastions, along the symmetrical layout of streets and squares, he planned a series of buildings, decorated with elaborate fresco cycles, and monuments with antique statues and sculptures, which made the small city center a fine example of urban planning in the classical style, particularly Roman. Teatro...

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