Ambrogio Lorenzetti's most revolutionary achievement - one of the most remarkable accomplishments of the Renaissance - is the fresco series that lines three walls of the room in the Palazzo Pubblico where Siena's chief magistrates, the Nine, held their meetings (Sala dei Nove). The size of the room is 2,96 x 7,70 x 14,40 m.

Ambrogio's task was unprecedented, for he was apparently called upon to paint allegorical depictions of good and bad government and to represent the effects such regimes would have in the town and the country. The result is the first panoramic city/countryscape since antiquity, and the first expansive portrait that we have of an actual city and landscape. Today, the cycle is usually identified as Good and Bad Government. Ambrogio chose the best-illuminated walls for Good Government and its effects, leaving Bad Government in the shadows on a wall that has also suffered considerable damage.

Preview	Picture Data	Info
	Madonna of Vico l'Abate 1319 Tempera on wood, 149 x 78 cm Museo di Arte Sacra, San Casciano in Val di Pesa (Florence)
	Allegory of the Good Government 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Allegory of the Good Government (left view, detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Allegory of the Good Government (left view, detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Allegory of the Good Government (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Allegory of the Good Government (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Good Government on the City Life (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Good Government on the City Life (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Good Government on the City Life (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Good Government on the City Life (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Good Government on the City Life (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Good Government on the City Life (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Good Government on the City Life (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	The Effects of Good Government in the Countryside (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	The Effects of Good Government in the Countryside (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	The Effects of Good Government in the Countryside (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	The Effects of Good Government in the Countryside (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Allegory of Bad Government (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Bad Government and the Effects of Bad Government on the City Life 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Bad Government on the City Life (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
	Effects of Bad Government on the Countryside (detail) 1338-40 Fresco Palazzo Pubblico, Siena