Ambrogio lorenzetti peaceful city
The effects of good government in the city and in the country!
Allegory of Good and Bad Government (1338-9)
Fresco cycle of six paintings in the Siena Town Hall
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.
What is fresco?
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 a
