Allegory of Good and Bad Government
(1338-9)
By Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Interpretation of Sienese fresco
paintings
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Allegory of Good and Bad Government
(1338-9)
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Allegory of Good and Bad Government (1338-9)
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Analysis of the Allegory of Good and Bad GovernmentThe "Allegory of Good and Bad Government" is a series of fresco paintings executed by Ambrogio Lorenzetti which are located in the Salon of Nine (or Council Room) in the Town Hall (Palazzo Pubblico) of the city of Siena. This famous cycle of pre-Renaissance painting is made up 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; Effects of Bad Government in the Country; and Effects of Good Government in the Country. Commissioned by the Council of Nine (the city council) and designed as a sort of political warning, aimed at members of the Council (drawn from Siena's ruling families), to reduce corruption and misrule, these mural paintings offer a pictorial contrast between the peace and prosperity of honest rule, versus the decay and ruin caused by tyranny. One one wall of the Salon of Nine, Lorenzetti portrays the benefits of good government - a 'good city' - probably based on Siena's real architecture (same cathedral, same bell tower) - which features dancers as well as busy traders, while outside the city peasants and travellers go about their business in peace and safety. On the other wall, the 'bad city' has a decaying, cramped appearance, while street crime is clearly visible. Outside the city, the 'bad countryside is marked by burning farms, disease and widespread drought. Ironically, in 1348 both Ambrogio Lorenzetti and his artist-brother Pietro Lorenzetti would die in Siena from the Black Death.
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Why This Painting is Important To begin with, unlike other works produced by the Sienese School of painting, The Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government has a secular rather than a religious theme - a rare characteristic at a time when the bulk of all Proto-Renaissance art consisted of religious paintings. Indeed, it remains one of the first significant examples of secular political art, since classical antiquity. Compare, for instance, works by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319), Duccio's pupil Simone Martini (1285-1344), Pietro Lorenzetti (active 1320-45) and Sassetta (1394-1450). Secondly, the work demonstrates the artistic modernism of its creator Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Not only was he active in Siena - a city noted for its conservative style of medieval painting - he was also a member of an important crafts guild in Florence, which suggests he was familiar with the advances made by Giotto and others. This is borne out by his depiction of realistic architectural space, his use of primitive perspective (see also his 1342 painting entitled The Presentation in the Temple), and his modelling of faces and figures. NOTE: Despite its secular nature, Lorenzetti's fresco can be said to anticipate the moralistic scenes created two centuries later by Netherlandish painters like Hieronymus Bosch (in Garden of Earthly Delights) and Pieter Bruegel (in Netherlandish Proverbs). Other Pictures by Ambrogio Lorenzetti • Nursing Madonna (1320-30)
Pontificio Seminario Regionale, Siena. Famous Paintings by the Sienese School For an interpretation of other celebrated works by artists from Siena, see the following articles: • Stroganoff
Madonna and Child (1300) by Duccio • Maesta
Altarpiece (1308-1311) by Duccio • Annunciation
with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus (1333) By Simone Martini |
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• For the meaning and interpretation of other Renaissance frescoes, see: Homepage.
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