Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:
Effects of Good Government on Town and Country
Alternate Title:
Effetti del Buon Governo in città e campagna
Image View:
Detail, lower painted dado decoration with allegorical figure in grisaille
Creator:
Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Italian painter, 1285-ca. 1348)
Location:
repository: Palazzo Pubblico (Siena, Tuscany, Italy)
Location Note:
Sala dei Nove (Council Room, also called Sala della Pace)
GPS:
43.318333 11.331389
Date:
1338-1339 (creation)
Cultural Context:
Italian
Style Period:
Fourteenth century; Gothic (Medieval)
Work Type 1:
fresco (painting)
Classification:
Paintings
Material:
pigment on plaster
Technique:
fresco painting (technique)
Measurements:
14.4 m (length, wall with fresco)
Inscription:
Inscription, banner held by Justice (translated): "Without fear every man may travel freely and each may till and sow, so long as this commune shall maintain this lady [Justice] sovereign, for she has stripped the wicked of all power.”
Subjects:
allegory; cityscape; cycles or series; landscape; Sienese; Republic of Siena
Description:
Among Ambrogio’s most significant works are those for the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena. While the Sala dei Nove (meeting chamber of the governing Nine) is an important historical document, its pictorial innovations are still more significant. In the Effects of Good Government, on the east wall, the cityscape displays a spatial organization unique for the period. Even more dramatic is the depiction of the surrounding countryside: the first panoramic landscape since antiquity, it is organized in a manner that would ultimately influence painters as far afield as France and the Netherlands. The countryside provides views of villas and farms in the area around Siena and a nascent conception of aerial perspective. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordart online.com/)
Collection:
Adjunct Module B: Italian Art
Identifier:
7A1-LOREN-PP-EGG-A24
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Effects of Good Government on Town and Country