- Luciano Laurana
Luciano Laurana (de la Vrana) (c. 1420 – 1479) was a
Dalmatia n-bornCroatia n architect and engineer who worked in Italy in the late 15th century. InCroatia he was known as Lucijan Vranjanin. His most famous work was the Palazzo Ducale ofUrbino . He was a relative of the sculptorFrancesco Laurana (Franjo Vranjanin).Laurana was born in
Vrana , nearZara (todayZadar inCroatia , then part of theRepublic of Venice ). Later in life, the Italians in Urbino called him "Schiavone", which meant "Slav" or Croat. Little is known about his early years. His father Martin was a stonecutter inZara , who worked together with the famous sculptorGiorgio Orsini on the cathedral of Sebenico (Šibenik).Around 1465 he is known to have collaborated in
Mantua withLeon Battista Alberti . From 1466 to 1472 he directed the works of the new palace commissioned byFederico III da Montefeltro , duke of Urbino. The exact attribution of the works is still disputed, as it is known that alsoFrancesco di Giorgio has a role in the construction: the innovative façade, however, is traditionally recognized as Laurana's.Later he worked in
Naples for the kingFerrante II of Naples . From 1472 he was in Pesaro, where he attended the construction of the Castle ("Rocca") until his death, occurred in 1479.The famous anonymous picture "
La città ideale ", housed in the Urbino National Gallery, has been attributed to him. Even if internationally known as an Italian artist, he is today regularly included by Croatians in the overviews of their art, with the name 'Lucijan Vranjanin'. [* [http://www.southeasteurope.org/subpage.php?sub_site=11&required=c_info/c_info&doc=arts&site=4&subj=7 Southeast Europe Online] ]References
External links
* [http://xoomer.alice.it/histria/storiaecultura/testiedocumenti/istrianifamosi/lauranaLuc.htm Luciano Laurana]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
