Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s “Effects of Good Government in the City and the Country” (c. 1337) is part of a revolutionary cycle of paintings adorning the walls of the Sala dei Nove, or “Room of the Nine” in Siena’s town hall, the Palazzo Pubblico. The first entirely secular fresco cycle of the Middle Ages, Lorenzetti’s paintings are among the most politically enlightening in the history of art, demonstrating that the governing principles of an effective democracy transcend time.