The question of the light source for Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco on the east wall of the Sala dei Nove, known as The Good City-Republic, has long attracted comment. In this article I argue for two light sources rather than one on the basis of internal evidence, historical contextualizing factors, and the way this theory converges with various critical observations. The two sources represent natural and transcendent light and reflect both Siena’s commitment to the Virgin Mary as its patron and the humanistic ideals of republican government.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Klassen, N., (2025), "City of Lights: Natural and Transcendent Light Sources for Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Good City-Republic", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. Quaderni d'italianistica

Original publication: Klassen, Norman. "City of Lights: Natural and Transcendent Light Sources for Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Good City-Republic." Quaderni d'italianistica 28 (2): 2009. 31-44. DOI: 10.33137/q.i..v28i2.8520. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Quaderni d'italianistica. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Quaderni d'italianistica under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.