AMBROGIO LORENZETTI (C. 1300-1348) was the younger and the more distinguished of the two brothers. Only five authentic works of his are in existence; they cover a period of 13 years. The frescoes representing scenes from the lives of St. Louis of Toulouse and of Franciscan martyrs, which he painted in 1331, in the chapter-house adjoining the church of San Francesco, are now in one of the choir chapels of that church. Ambrogio then worked in Florence and Cortona. Of an altarpiece, painted for the church of San Procato in Florence, four predella pieces with scenes from the life of St. Nicholas of Bari are in the Florence academy. From 1337-39 he was employed on the deco ration of the Sala della Pace in the Palazzo Publico of Siena with four great allegorical pictures representing "Good Government," "Effects of Good Government," "Tyranny" and "Effects of Tyranny." The subject matter shows that the artist was a stu
dent of Aristotle's political philosophy, and bears out Vasari's statement that he was a philosopher and a man of distinction, who was interested in the government of his native town. The symbolical figures, especially those representing "Peace" and "Jus tice," are full of elegance and life, classical in conception. Here Sienese painting reached its climax. Among Ambrogio's later works are a "Presentation in the Temple," signed and dated 1342, painted for the Spedaletto of Mona Agnese and now in the Uffizi, Florence; and an "Annunciation" dated 1344 and also signed, in the Siena academy. As neither he nor his brother is mentioned after 1348 it is assumed that they died of the plague which that year devastated the city.