A Parallel Between Words and Graphics: The Process of Urban Representation Through Verbal Descriptions, from Historical Painters to the Automatically Generated Images by Artificial Intelligence

From the City by the sea by Ambrogio Lorenzetti (about 1340) to the representation of cities in large frescoes from the Modern Age, the descriptions of places far from reach are extremely rich and based on both maps and oral descriptions. The transposition from a spoken story to a drawing or representation is clearly recognizable: similarities between different authors and the adoption of common rules made possible a syntax aimed to represent backgrounds and give context to events. This process of passing from words to representation is now extremely actual because of the development of artificial intelligence procedures based on text to images processing. The scenario is highly changed between the Middle Ages and our contemporary times, but the need to communicate through correct word sequences is very similar. A couple of case studies are here presented putting in parallel the AI-generated images and the products from human drawings based on descriptive texts. The relationship and the weight of each word and the structure of the text will be evaluated and balanced accordingly to the results. Each case study is focused on a meaningful artwork from the past, characterized by the presence of a town which is more the creation of imagination based on narration than on a direct visit.