Sala dei nove, Siena: Lorenzetti’s ‘government frescoes’
Detail of “Allegory of Good Government” derived from the 3D scan
context: The Sala dei Nove
The Sala dei Nove, or Hall of the Nine, in Siena’s Palazzo Pubblico houses one of the most important pieces of early Renaissance art: the ‘Allegories of Good and Bad Government’ by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, painted 1338-1339. The frescoes cover 3 walls of the relatively small room in the city’s town hall, and are a staple of tourist day-trips and art history survey classes alike.
a Problem of access
Despite being home to some of the greatest works of Italian Renaissance art and architecture, Siena is a somewhat difficult-to-reach hill town in Italy’s Tuscany region, and often consigned to ‘day-trip from Florence’ status. Within Siena, Lorenzetti’s frescoes are overshadowed, quite literally, by the panoramic views from the Torre del Mangia or the panoply of the nearby Opera del Duomo.
Within the Sala dei Nove, one would need a ladder or binoculars to fully appreciate the frescoes, which occupy the upper tier of the room, some 2 meters above the heads of visitors.
A new 3D digital survey
This was the first time that a 3D scan of the Lorenzetti frescoes was made publicly available, through the generous permission of the Mayor’s Office of Siena. The 3D model serves as the foundation of a virtual reality environment that allows students of Art History to virtually visit the room and enjoy high-resolution, eye-level views of the frescoes with an educational narrative provided by SmartHistory.org
Elevation of the “Allegories of Good Government”
the process
Digitization was carried out over the course of 2 mornings in February 2020, with the permission of the mayor’s office of Siena.
The VR environment
Students of Art History at Indiana University are able to enjoy an embodied, spatial experience of the Sala dei Nove as part of their 15th Century Italian Renaissance class. Using a virtual reality headset, students are able to walk around the Palazzo Pubblico and stand face-to-face with the allegorical figures in Lorenzetti’s frescoes.