Artibus et Historiae no. 45 (XXIII)

2002, ISSN 0391-9064

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JOSEPH POLZER - Ambrogio Lorenzetti's War and Peace Murals Revisited: Contributions to the Meaning of the Good Government Allegory

This paper focuses on the intricate allegory of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Good Government mural in the council hall of the nine executive magistrates of the state of Siena in the city's Palazzo Pubblico. Here the role of the state's advisors responsible for the mural's intricate propagandistic intellectual structure serving the state of Siena under the Nine and the genial artist's contribution must be separated. The reading of the mural takes into account the restorations of the later Trecento and especially the loss of bright metal leaf originally applied on significant portions of the mural. It is found that the mural's iconography is more complicated than hitherto thought. Here are some of the conclusions reached: the mural assumes awareness of Simone Martini's Maestà in the adjacent legislative council hall; the images of Commutative and Distributive Justices depart from their Aristotelian-Thomistic roots; the antiquising Peace, represented as the desirable woman, sharing the central stage of the mural with Fortitude, represents the victory of Peace over War; the exceptional presence of two Justices involves one serving God and the other the state of Siena; and the meaningful paired correspondences of virtues with vices, considering the entire mural cycle, are not systematically applied. Last but not least, the significant presence of the Sienese army introduces an element of "realpolitik" which corresponds to the near contemporary views of Marsilius of Padua expressed in his Defensor Pacis.