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