Luciano Laurana (redirected from Luciano da Laurana)

Laurana, Luciano 

(properly, Lucian from Vrana, or Lucijan Vranjanin). Born circa 1420–25, in Zadar or Vrana, Croatia; died 1479, in Pesaro, Marches. Italian architect.

Laurana lived in Mantua (until 1465), Pesaro (in 1465, 1466, and from the mid-1470’s), Naples (after 1472, as a military specialist), and Urbino (1466–72). His most important work is the ducal Palace of Urbino (completed in 1563), which combined features of a castle and an urban villa.

An Early Renaissance master, Laurana created exquisitely simple compositions that blend the order of Florentine columnar architecture of the mid-15th century with picturesque freedom. Also attributed to Laurana are paintings with architectural vistas seen in perspective, reflecting the ideals of city construction of Italian humanism (Walters Gallery, Baltimore, and other collections).

REFERENCES

Rotondi, P. Il Palazzo Ducale di Urbino, vols. 1–2. Urbino, 1950–51. (Bibliography.)
Franceschini, G. Figure del Rinascimento urbinate. Urbino, 1959.

V. F. MARKUZON