Allegory of good and bad government - Essay Example

Allegory of good and bad government  Ambrogio Lorenzetti lived in Italy first half of 14th century and painted in Siena from 1319 to 1347. Very few of Lorenzetti’s pieces have survived. Some of the most significant ones are Allegory of Good Government and Allegory of Bad Government and its Effects on Town and Country. While depicting scenes from everyday life, Lorenzetti skillfully uses allegory to depict government and the effect it has on life of its people. Lorenzetti illustrates Justice, in Allegory of Good Government, sitting under the presence of wisdom.

She is represented by a woman who holds scales of balance to give out rewards or mete out punishments. The figure of Justice bares resemblance of Mary, a patron saint of Siena, also dresses in Siena’s black and white colors to also represent the Common Good and God. The Common Good figure is surrounded with different virtues, by which Lorenzetti clearly highlights the necessity for all society to believe and act for justice and impartiality to rule a city well. The three figures in Good Government symbolize the key virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

They soar over the head of the sovereign of good government, a man dressed like a king and sitting on a throne. This royal figure is the way Lorenzetti physically creates a heart of good government—a heart of common good. In this wisdom, he makes an unspoken equivocation between an authoritative yet kind central sovereign and the accomplishment of the common good. The artwork portrays a city with beautiful houses, undifferentiated architecturally (representing justice and impartiality); a school with children and merchants’ store are in active work; different city figures are taking part in various jobs to guarantee the city runs efficiently; crops take place on the fields, and cattle is in abundance; people are dancing.

The recognizable Siena’s countryside view is beautiful and luscious.  In the Allegory of Bad Government, the three figures of vain glory, avarice & pride soar over the head of the despotic ruler of this bad government, who looks repulsive and horrible—even devilish. Wicked virtue rules bad government, which effects in a ruler, or various rulers, hell-bent on power despite of price. One upsetting figure, which is together with the despotic leader is the woman sawing herself, is symbolizing either disunion or cruelty and aggression toward women, which is a result of bad government.

Tyranny surrounded itself with figures representing war, cruelty, division and injustice. It is clear to see that city suffers from crime, and its citizens are diseased and destitute. The countryside suffers from drought. The effectiveness of the allegory we may judge by the fruits made. Lorenzetti cautions Siena’s leaders to “let the mind and understanding be intent on keeping each always subject to Justice, in order to escape such dark injuries.” It is difficult to ignore the message Lorenzetti was trying to bring across through these allegories.

Nevertheless the governments did not take a note of that warning & during the next century Siena along with other city states survived through very tough time of political instability, wars and Black Death sickness. It resulted also in constant change of governments. Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco paintings Good and Bad Government offers historical depiction of governance in Italian city states throughout the fourteenth centuries. This work shows the Siena’s governmental system along with other Italian city states that tend to develop social strife among its people.

Through his special manner of expression, Lorenzetti tries to offer solution to the problem of bad government by portraying the results of successful and unsuccessful ways of governance. Siena was experiencing power struggles, so Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted frescos Allegory of Good Government, Bad Government and the Effects of Bad Government in the City, and Effects of Good Government in the City and in the Country as a warning for his people. Lorenzetti’s allegorical works appropriately covered “The Sala della Pace” walls in Siena’s “Palazzo Pubblico”, the hall and building where Siena’s government lived and held meetings; they portray belief that a government that serves the Common Good is most successful and most supported by God.

In the lower border of his work he clarifies by remarking that wherever justice reins, “she induces to unity the many souls and they, gathered together for such a purpose, make the Common Good their Lord.” Having his paintings in the governmental building was to be a constant reminder of the responsibility government has. Works cited Paoletti, John & Gary Radke Art in Renaissance Italy, 3rd edition Laurence King Publishing Ltd, 2005, Print Starn, Rudolf & Loren Patridge Arts of Power Three halls of State in Italy, 1300-1600 University of California press, 1992. Print