In the other two panels of this hall Ambrogio Lorenzetti painted the contrast of good and bad government, harmony and discord.  A city full of brawls and bloodshed is set in opposition to one where the dance and viol do not cease.  Merchants are plundered as they issue from the gates on one side; on the other, trains of sumpter mules are securely winding along mountain paths.  Tyranny, with all the vices for his council and with Terror for prime minister, presides over the ill-governed town.  The burghers of the happy commune follow trade or pleasure, as they list; a beautiful winged genius, inscribed “Securitas,” floats above their citadel.  It should be added that in both these pictures the architecture is the same; for the painter has designed to teach how different may be the state of one and the same city according to its form of government.  Such then were the vivid images whereby Ambrogio Lorenzetti expressed the mediaeval curse of discord, and the ideal of a righteous rule.  It is only necessary to read the “Diario Sanese” of Allegretto Allegretti in order to see that he drew no fancy picture.  The torchlight procession of burghers swearing amity by couples in the cathedral there described, receives exact pictorial illustration in the fresco of the Sala della Pace[148].  Siena, by her bloody factions and her passionate peacemakings, expressed in daily action what the painter had depicted on her palace walls.

The method of treatment adopted for these chapters has obliged me to give priority to Florence, and to speak of the two Lorenzetti, Pietro in the Pisan Campo Santo and Ambrogio in the Sala della Pace at Siena, as though they were followers of Giotto; so true is it that the main currents of Tuscan art were governed by Florentine influences, and that Giotto’s genius made itself felt in all the work of his immediate successors.  It must, however, be observed that painting had an independent origin among the Sienese, and that Guido da Siena may claim to rank even earlier than Cimabue.[149] In the year 1260, just before engaging in their duel with Florence, the Sienese dedicated their city to the Virgin; and the victory of Montaperti, following immediately upon this vow, gave a marked impulse to their piety.[150] The early masters of Siena devoted themselves to religious paintings, especially to pictures of Madonna suited for chapels and oratories.  We find upon these mystic panels an ecstasy of adoration and a depth of fervour which are alien to the more sober spirit of Florence, combined with an almost infantine delight in pure bright colours, and in the decorative details of the miniaturist.