The Allegory of Good and Bad Government

The paintings and frescoes of Renaissance Italy are amongst the most famous and well know artworks in the world. They are admired for their beauty and endurance as well as their stylistic innovations. In an attempt to better understand the social and political significance of such a work, historians often break it down into its component parts, in order to gain a better understanding of the piece as a whole. Much can be learned in this process, although in order to reach a complete and accurate conclusion, the investigation must be taken one step further. A true understanding can only be reached when an attempt is made to consider the manner in which a Renaissance person would have encountered and interpreted the work. One artist whose work can benefit from such an approach is Ambrogio Lorenzetti. His fresco cycle in the Sala dei Nove of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, which includes the Allegory of Good Governmentand the Allegory of Bad Government, contains a multitude of symbols which enlighten the viewer and may pass unnoticed at first glance.

This fresco cycle was commissioned by the Commune of Siena, and was executed between 1338 and 1340. At this time Siena was an oligarchy, comprised of wealthy merchants. They met in the Sala dei Nove of the Palazzo Pubblico. The choice of nine representatives evolved from a class struggle amongst the previous rule, the Twenty-four, which was composed in equal halves of Guelphs and Ghibellines. The merchants finally decided to pursue peace at all costs, seized power, and solidified their victory with the formation of the Nine[1]. According to B. Arthaud, their eighty year rule was a time of unexpected peace, followed by a rule of the Twelve, small tradesmen instead of great. A decline followed, with upheavals and agitation that culminated in an end to the city's independence.[2]

It is not surprising that a city so covetous of peace would choose allegory as the means by which to illustrate their hopes and fears. In The Mural Painters of Tuscany, Eve Borsook stated: " There were murals exalting just rule both before and after Ambrogio's famous work. The usual scheme was to parade before the citizenry a troupe of ancient heroes accompanied by appropriate inscriptions, or a personification of a virtue, such as Justice or Prudence triumphant over some common evil. But as far as we know, the Palazzo Pubblico was unique. No other allegory of civic virtue was ever given such a specifically communal character. On either side of the long room are familiar views of Siena and the surrounding countryside, which disclose the effects of good and bad government upon its citizens."[3]

In the Allegory of Good Government, Ambrogio has enthroned the figure representing the Commune of Siena. He is carrying the orb and scepter, and wears the communal colors of black and white. At his feet is the wolf and twins, long considered a symbol of Siena, and he carries the shield of the city. He is guided by Faith, Hope, and Charity, who soar above his head. On the bench to his left sit Magnanimity, Temperance, and Justice, and on the bench to his right are Peace Fortitude and Prudence. Farther to the left is Justice, with Wisdom floating above her head. Wisdom dispenses punishments and rewards through the form of Distributive Justice, who crowns a kneeling figure with her left hand and chops the head of another figure with her right hand, and Commutative Justice, who gives arms to a noble and money to a merchant. Below the throne of Justice, Concord presides over the twenty-four magistrates of the Sienese Republic, one of whom grips the cord that extends from Justice and Concord back to the Scepter of the Sienese Commune.[4]

The equivalent to this piece is the Allegory of Bad Government. In this piece the court of bad justice is governed by a devil holding a poison cup. He has a foot on a goat's horns and his eyes are crossed. Floating above his head are Avarice, Pride, and Vainglory. Sinners surround him. War, Treason, and Fury sit to his left, and Discord, Fraud, and Cruelty on his right. Justice is bound, and her scales fallen.[5]

These central panels are each accompanied by two more scenes. The Allegory of Good Government is followed by The Effect of Good Government upon the City. This depicts the buildings in good repair. There are many shops, indicating good commerce and economic conditions. A wedding procession can be seen, as well as a teaching scene and women dancing. This fresco runs in to the next, The Effects of Good Government upon the Countryside. Between the two hangs the figure Securitas, in the form of a winged genius. She holds a banner that says "Let every man go about without fear, and let every man sow, while this lady rules the land, for she has taken the power from all the guilty."[6] To the right is the countryside, in which prosperity abounds. Crops are neatly planted, and people and animals appear to live happily and without want.

The Allegory of Bad Government is accompanied by The Effects of Bad Government upon the City and The Effects of Bad Government upon the Countryside. These are badly damaged, although it is still possible to discern their intent. The city is in dire need of repair, there is a soldier riding through town, and the people are quarreling. Where Securitas was placed in the other sequence, here Timor rules with the words "Because he seeks his own welfare in this world he subjects justice to tyranny; thus no one treads this road without fear, for pillage is rife both within and without the city limits."[7] Scenes from the countryside follow, in which the land lies fallow and there is a sense of desolation. Farms are abandoned or burning, the church is in ruin, and soldiers roam the land.

In his own attempt at interpretation, Nicolai Rubinstein believed that an effort to comprehend the frescoes should start with an understanding of their arrangement.[8] To this extent he states " As we face the frescoes with our backs to the widows, we find on the left the allegory of Bad Government, and its effects on town and countryside. On the end wall in front of us is the allegory of Good Government, with its effects on the wall to the right. The allegory of Good Government thus occupies the central position amongst the frescoes of the Sala dei Nove. It does so in more than one respect. It faces the windows, so as to receive full light. Where Good Government occupies two walls, Bad Government occupies only one." This establishes the Allegory of Good Government as the central panel of the piece.

Rubinstein's next step was to examine this central fresco. He divided it into three sections. There are two upper sections separated by the figure of Peace, and one lower section, running along the whole width of the fresco. The upper section he divides into the ruler with figures representing the virtues, and on the left, Justice. He states that the scene on the right appears at first to be a pictorial representation of a conventional "mirror of princes" motif - both cardinal and political virtues considered essential for good rulership. He continues that "this interpretation of the allegory, obvious as it may seem, is handicapped by the fact that Siena was a republic. There was no monarchical ruler in Siena"[9]

He concludes that this must be personification of the Commune of Siena.

The scene to the left is more complex. Rubinstein explained it in the following manner :

"The scene represents a complex allegory in which the Aristotelian theory of justice, in its contemporary scholastic and juristic interpretation, forms the principal theme. At the same time, there are Augustinian overtones in the combination of Justice and Peace. Perhaps the most obvious representation of that theory in our fresco is the distinction between distributive and commutative justice. Neither Aristotle nor St. Thomas include punitive jurisdiction in the former; but the Italian version of Giles of Rome's De regimine principum modifies the Aristotelian definition in this way. In our fresco, Sapientia (Wisdom) is on the same higher lever as the theological virtues, and is holding a book as well as the balance of Justice. That Wisdom should inspire Justice corresponds to the basic theme of St Thomas' Summa Theologica, and plays an important role in juristic thought. "[10]

He further explains that the cord symbolizes how justice directs the common good, which connects Justice to the personified common good, and by citizens, who while holding the cord, face towards the latter. The soldiers and the two feudal lords submitting to the Commune show its effects on political power, the citizens demonstrate its effects on civic unity.

He finds the final message revealing the identity of the "ruler" in De bono communi, by the Florentine Dominican preacher Remigio de' Girolami. Remigio set out to prove that the neglect of the common good in favor of self-interest was the cause of much disaster in contemporary Italy. Salvation, then, lies in making the common good the ruling principle in the state; the common good must be raised to the position of the ruler.[11]

While scholar Uta Feldges-Henning agrees with the work of Nicolai Rubinstein, she believes that that the scenes in city and country are more than a simple reiteration of the central theme, and have their own symbolic meaning. She describes the border that runs above and below the frescoes. These are composed of quatrefoil medallions. On the upper edge of the short wall, one shows the sun shining over the good regime. Two more are no longer identifiable. On the right-hand side, adjacent to the east wall, the planets Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, the seasons Spring and Summer, and the papal coat-of-arms can be seen. The corresponding lower medallions depict the liberal arts. On the short wall is the trivium: Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric. On the sidewall is the quadrivium: Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy, and Philosophy. The last medallion is the black and white coat-of-arms of Siena. Above Bad Government are the planets Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. The three remaining medallions depict the seasons Autumn and Winter, and the coat of arms of France. In the lower frame there were probably five notable tyrants of antiquity, of which Nero is the only one still evident.[12]

She further describes, in a detailed account, all of the activities that are occurring in the city. Otto Pacht has observed that some of these activities belong to certain times of the year.[13] A closer examination, according to Feldges-Henning, reveals that they do not belong to the whole year, but rather to spring and summer. Some examples are viniculture (March), soil cultivation and sowing (April), riding (May), ploughing and stock-raising (June), cereal harvesting and fishing (July), threshing (August), and hunting (September). None of the characteristic events of autumn and winter months are shown, such as vintage (October), tree-felling (November), slaughter of pigs (December), cold weather (January), or woodcutting (February).

What is shown are the activities that take place in the seasons personified in the medallions at the top of the work. Upon reaching this conclusion, she continues, one would expect to find the activities of the autumn and winter months depicted in the scenes of Bad government. This, however, is not the case, and an explanation is offered further along in her account.

The activities shown in the city cannot be accounted in full if they were to represent the months, for far too many activities occur. To account for this, Feldges-Henning proposes an alternate theory to that of Pacht. She believes that they are more closely representative of the artes mechanicae: activities that are necessary to human life. An example of this nature is the mechanical art Lanificium, which consists not only of procuring wool and weaving material, but of the whole manufacturing of clothing, including leather and fur goods, sails, and rope. In the city, four manifestations of this art are found: the tailor at his bench, the dyers and wool-sorter under the arch, and the shoe-makers in their shop. Other mechanical arts include trade, architecture, the hunt, and medicine.

The position of the dance in the center of the scene is also addressed. The figures are larger in scale than any of the others. Feldges-Henning states "the portrayal of the dance in a town where dancing in the street was forbidden seems to me to be the strongest possible evidence that Ambrogio's city-landscape is not genre-portrayal, a portrayal of human activities as an artistic end in itself. It rather shows that a firm, well thought out program underlies this fresco. The fact that there are nine dancers (the tenth is banging a tambourine), may be an allusion to the nine muses"[14]

These different crafts and activities belong to the well-ordered civitas, the medieval city-state.[15] This shifts the emphasis of the significance of the town from one of generic representation to a fixed program: the city of Siena as a prototype of the medieval town. Siena is glorified as the ideal town. The artes mechanicaes were considered necessary for the civitas. Since the arts cannot simply be carried out in a city, the adjacent countryside is now vital to the city scene. Feldges-Hening states that the concept of civitas as understood in the Middle Ages, was a concept of Heavenly Jerusalem, where everyone is useful in his skill or profession.

In medieval symbolism, Babylon is contrasted with the Heavenly Jerusalem. Thus, Feldges-Henning concludes that "the fresco Bad Government can be equated with the city of Babylon. A further characteristic of the city of Babylon, according to Albert Magnus, is that there is no possibility for the people to earn their living. According to Fra Giordano, there is no craft practised in Babylon other than that of sin. In this context, the lack of labors for the months of the second half of the year is explicable."[16]

It is difficult to imagine what the people of Siena would have made of these frescoes. The magistrates, being wealthy, would have therefore been better educated, and more likely to be familiar with the writings of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. These scenes would have provided a persistent commentary to guide them in their quest for peace, and also issued a warning against the peril and ruin that surely accompanies tyranny. Whatever they felt as they were surrounded by these works, it is evident today that they are of a level of sophistication that adds to the civic pride that Siena so valued.

[1] Ferdinand Schevill. Siena: The History of a Medieval Commune. Harper Torchbooks. 1964. P 138.

[2] Pierre du Colombier. Siena and Sienese Art. Translated by Mary Fitton. Nicholas Kaye, London. P 24.

[3] Eve Borsook. Mural Painters of Tuscany. Phaidon Publishers Inc. 1960. P 136.

[4] Frederick Hartt. History of Italian Renaissance Art. Fourth ed. Prentice Hall. 1994. P 129.

[5] William A. Bowsky. A Medieval Italian Commune: Siena under the Nine. University of California Press. P 290.

[6] Uta Feldges-Henning. "Programme of the Sala della Pace," from the Journal of The Warburg and Cortaud Institutes. Volume 35. 1972. Pp 147-162.

[7] Feldges-Henning. P 148.

[8] Nicolai Rubinstein. "Political Ideas in Sienese Art : The Frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Taddeo di Bartolo in the Palazzo Pubblico," from the Journal of the Warburg and Cortauld Institutes.Volume 21. 1958. Pp 179-193.

[9] Nicolai Rubinstein. P 179.

[10] Nicolai Rubinstein. P 182-183.

[11] Rubinstein cites Italian Studies, Volume 11, as the source for Remigio de' Girolami's De bono communi.

[12] Feldges-Henning. P 150.

[13] Feldges-Henning cites O. Pacht, "Early Italian nature studies and the early calendar landscape." Journal of the Warburg and Cortauld Institutes. Volume 13. 1950. P 41.

[14] P 155.

[15] P 158.

[16] Pp 160-161.