At the beginning of the 14th century, the Italian city of Siena was governed by a group of nine wealthy merchants known as the Nove (Nine). While not a democratic or participatory form of governance, this oligarchy gave Siena a period of stability and prosperity that encouraged the production of remarkable works of art, some of which had explicit political import. In the Palazzo Pubblico, the walls of the Nove’s meeting room were painted with extensive murals by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Good and Bad Government, which pictorially provided moral lessons in governing and embodied the new civic humanism of the era. The ideas about government that Lorenzetti conveyed in his murals still resonate today.
Elaine French received a bachelor’s degree in art history from Wellesley College and a master’s degree in art history from San Jose State University, where she wrote her master’s thesis on a 13th-century Sienese manuscript illuminator. She also holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University in education psychology.
Part of The Center’s BIG IDEA project We the People: Protest and Patriotism, Sep 28–Dec 14, 2018.