Allegory of Good Government

Allegory of Good Government Wikipedia Creative Commons

Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti were Sienese brothers who extended the side of Duccio's  art that was concerned with rendering solidity of form and emotional depth. Together they helped introduce humanism into Sienese art, their influences coming from the sculptures of Pisano and also by contemporary work in Florence by Giotto. In 1338 Ambrogio was commissioned to paint a fresco cycle for the walls of the city's Sala Della Pace in the Palazzo Pubblico. This room was behind the wall of the Great Council Chamber, where the city's government held their meetings. The series consists of six different scenes: Allegory of Good Government, Allegory of Bad Government, Effects of Bad Government in the City, Effects of Good Government in the City and Effects of Good Government in the Country. In the fresco cycle Lorenzetti expresses the idea that the cause of peace lays not only from the effects of good government, but also from the citizens acting in accordance with the worldly and stellar force that governs them.

Peace Creative Commons

Since this room was the council chamber of Siena's chief magistrates and it is not surprising to find as the subject an allegory on the theme of good and bad government. The most striking fresco to me is the Allegory of Good Government. The composition is made up of three horizontal bands. In the foreground the twenty-four members of the Sienese magistrates line up in front of Concord. Above them on a higher platform sit the representations of Good Government. Enthroned, in the center of the platform sits Wisdom holding up an orb and scepter, symbolizing temporal power. He confers with the he virtues of Good Government who are represented by six crowned, stately female figures: Peace, Fortitude and Prudence on the left, Magnanimity, Temperance and Justice on the right. Justice is repeated again on the far left as she dispenses rewards of aid and punishment. My favorite figure in the piece is that of Peace. The figure illustrates the Ambrogio’s fascination with Roman art as her form is modeled after a Roman sarcophagus. Peace’s languid figure reclines unlike the severe frontality of many of the other figures. Overall this cycle was groundbreaking for the time and in some parts the beginnings of an understanding of one-point perspective can be seen.