Siena: City ofthe Virgin - Facultad De Humanidades

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5.26 M'1e5Ici, 1317-18, co m m issio ned by Nella di Millo Tolornci from Lippa Memmi for th e Pal.1/..l0 Pubh lico, S,lI' Girnignano . Fresco
The pa ired figu re, (0 th e left and the right were ad d ed by B", w lo d i Fred, when t he fresco wa s enlarged on 1367. The fresco was repai red alon g t he lower edge in the
1460, by Beno zzo Gozzoli, who ma;, have rcparnted the head , of rh e two figure' ro ehe far nghT.
of the Tolomei fam ily appears in the baldaccbino above . If
nothing else this rather pedestrian painting indicates how
powerful the language of civic imagery was. By placing the
copy of Simone's Maes:« in the town hall ofSan Gimignano,
Nelle made very clea r Siena's political control over the small
town and his power as legate in enforcing that control.
Secular Imagery in the Sala del Consiglio
Accompanying Simone's Maest« in the Sala del Consiglio
in the Palazzo Pubblico were a number o f secular images.
Frescoes commemorated barrles and imporranr mil itary
captains, and a huge rotating map by Ambrogio Loren zetti
(now destroyed) set Sienese events in a world context. One
of the best surviving examples of th is reportorial art was
commissioned from the painter and miniaturist Lippa
Vanni (active 1341 - 75 Siena) to record th e Sienesc victory
in the Val di Chiana over English mercenaries in 1363
(Fig. 5.27 and see Fig. 5.25). His monochromatic fresco, like
man y such civic images painted exclusively ill central Italian
town halls, records the progress of the battle and the disposition
of the troops episodically across the wall; it is a
graphic chronicle of the event rather than a naturalistic
reconstruction, wit h cities carefully labeled and the armies
identified by the he rald ic flags of their leaders. Here again,
function derermined style.
The Sala della Pace: "Good Government"
On e of the most elaborate decorative programs for the
Palazzo Pubblico of Siena was commissioned from
Ambrogio Lorenzetti for the room adjacent to the Sala del
Consiglio in 1338. This was the meeting room of the Nine:
the Sala dei Nove or the Sala della Pace (Room ofPeace). The
membership of rill' Nine, who led th e Sicn ese government
from 1287 to 1355 , changed every two mont hs, always
drawn from th e Sienese ar istocracy, despite rep eat ed
attempts to widen the sources ofrepresentation . Legislation
of 1318 made rhein responsible for "the ordering and
reformation of rhe whole city and contado ('countryside')
of Sien a." For the Sala della Pace Loren zetti designed an
allegori cal fresco cycle underscoring the benefits of good
go vern m ent an d the dangers of bad gov ernment.
T he cycle consists of three frescoes: the Allegory ofGood
Government, the E.fJeet> ofGood Government in the City and in the
COlm tIY , and Bad GO{.'('l7lmellt and the Effiet,ofn'ld G(wcmment
in the Cit». The AllegolJ ofGood Government (Fig. 5.28) occupies
one shorr wall of the room and is the central image in
it. A complicated and fragmented work, it lack s a single
compositional focus and thus must be read episodically.
The largest image on the wall , and therefore, according to
the hi erarchies of the period. the most important, is the
seated male flgun: on the right. who is clothed in the

5.27 V,rtory o( lhe Sienesc Troop, at the Val di C/';,I(W If' 13 63 . c. 13 64 (?). Lippa Vanni, Sala d el Co nsiglio ( Room o ft he Co u nc il). Pala zzo I'ubblico. Sie na .
Fresco
5.28 Allegory of Good Covem ment , 13 38 -·10 . co m m issio ned by the go vern in g bo dy of I he Nine from Ambrogio Lorenzetti for til l' S,,1a della Pace (a lso known
,j , the Ro o m o f t he Nin e), Pa lazzo Pu b blico, Siena . Fresco . lengt h c. 25 ' 3" (7 .7 on)
The te xt in the lower ba rd." of the fresco read s: "Th is holy Virtu" [o f'j usucc ] where she rules. ind uces to unity , h,' Ill;lny ,0,,1, I" f the cirizcns ]. and the y, ga thered
togelher fo r suc h a purpose, ma ke the Com mon Go od their Lord ; an d he, in ord er to govern his sta te, chooses never 10 turn Ills "yes fr'OIl1 the r",pleod erll faces ofthe
Virtues who , it ar o und him, Th erefo re to him in tr ium ph arc offered taxe s, trib utes an d lordship of tow ns: th" 'd",,,, without war , every Civic res ult duly folloW!>useful.
necessa ry, and pleasurabl e," (Tra ns. Diana Norman)
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5.31 The Funeralo(the Virgin. 1406-7 , com mission ed by the
Priors from Taddeo di Bartolo for th eir chapel. Palazzo
Pubblico, Siena. Fresco, ' 0' 6" x t t' 4 " (3.2 X 3.45 m)
employs earlier convention s of spatial organization
and fig ural composition. The way Taddeo
truncates th e faces ofthe a pos tles behind rile bier
indicates rhar he is so metimes interested in naruralisric
observation. Yet non e of rhe apostles
seems to be actually bea ring the weigh t of the
bier. their wiry outline an d sharp, angu lar pos es
arc stoc k featu res in Taddeo's work. Along with
the stylized or blank backgrou nds in the frescoes
these featu res would have given the decorative
program of the city hall a stylistic consist ency
spannmg over a cen tury.
In 1407 the Priors commissioned Spinello
Aretina (Sp inello di Luca Spinelli ; 1350/ 52
Arczzo - J-t lO Florence), assisted perhaps by his
son, Parri Sp inelli (I3H7 Arena- 1453 Arezzo)
to paint the walls of th eir meeting ro om ,
the Sala dei Priori (Fig. 5.32 ). The subject matter
of th e two-ti ered frescoes , wh ich cove l" all fou r
walls of the room. co ncer ns the Sicnesc pope
Alexander 1lI Bandinelli (r. I 159-81 ). Supposedly
this subj ect was chosen as the result of a visit of
Pope Gregory XII to Sien a, the frescoes being
5.3 2 Scenes (rom the LiteQrAlexander III, 14 0 7, co mmission ed
by the Priors from Spinello Aretino for th e Sala d e; Priori,
Palazzo Pubblico , Siena. Fresco
intended to remind the current incumbent
of a Sicncse citizen who had been
pope and who had even brought the
fl'arsome lsarbarossa to his knees. They fit
(he need s ofa civic site by honoring one of
its fam ou s citizcns, and th ey mav also
serve cont,'mporary history by suggesting
a compari son between Alexander's alliance
with the Lomb ards and the Priors'
Milan ese alliance with the Visconti, The
frescoes' Florentine sense of spaciousness,
th eir massive, solid figures, and naturalis­ 121
tic deta ils indicate th at historical narrative 00
de ma nded a dramatic and naturalistic
style.
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In 1413- I-'I th e Priors :tgain turned to -0
Taddeo di Bart olo to paint a cycle of paintorings
for the anrcchapel of the Palazzo
Pubblico, a space that functioned as an
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important passage between other room s
of the palace . The Prio rs thought this
space imporranr enough ro ass ign Pietro
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de ' Pecci, a lawyer and teacher in Siena,
and Cr isroforo di Andrea, the city's
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