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 meeting room of the Nove were painted with extensive murals by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegories of Good and Bad Government, which pictorially provided moral lessons in governing to the Nove and embodied the new civic humanism of the era. The ideas about government that Lorenzetti conveyed in his murals still resonate today. This lecture is a part of the Big Idea: We the People: Protest and Patriotism.

Elaine received a BA 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 PhD from Stanford in Education Psychology.