in the age of allegories and symbolism, when poets and
painters strove to personify in human shape all thoughts and
sentiments. The first great fresco represents Peace--the peace of
the Republic of Siena. Ambrogio has painted the twenty-four
councillors who formed the Government, standing beneath the thrones
of Concord, Justice, and Wisdom. From these controlling powers they
stretch in a long double line to a seated figure, gigantic in size,
and robed with the ensigns of baronial sovereignty. This figure is
the State and Majesty of Siena.[1] Around him sit Peace, Fortitude,
and Prudence, Temperance, Magnanimity, and Justice, inalienable
assessors of a powerful and righteous lord. Faith, Hope, and
Charity, the Christian virtues, float like angels in the air above.
Armed horsemen guard his throne, and captives show that he has laid
his enemy beneath his feet. Thus the mediaeval artist expressed, by
painting, his theory of government. The rulers of the State are
subordinate to the State itself; they stand between the State and
the great animating principles of wisdom, justice, and concord,
incarnating the one, and receiving inspiration from the others. The
pagan qualities of prudence, magnanimity, and courage give stability
and greatness to good government, while the spirit of Christianity
must harmonise and rule the whole. Arms, too, are needful to
maintain by force what right and law demand, and victory in a just
quarrel proclaims the power and vigour of the commonwealth. On
another wall Ambrogio has depicted the prosperous city of Siena,
girt by battlements and moat, with tower and barbican and
drawbridge, to insure its peace. Through the gates stream
country-people, bringing the produce of their farms into the town.
The streets are crowded with men and women intent on business or
pleasure; craftsmen at their trade, merchants with laden mules, a
hawking party, hunters scouring the plain, girls dancing, and
children playing in the open square. A school-master watching his
class, together with the sculptured figures of Geometry, Astronomy,
and Philosophy, remind us that education and science flourish under
the dominion of well-balanced laws. The third fresco exhibits the
reverse of this fair spectacle. Here Tyranny presides over a scene
of anarchy and wrong. He is a hideous monster, compounded of all the
bestial attributes which indicate force, treason, lechery, and fear.
Avarice and Fraud and Cruelty and War and Fury si