Patrick Boucheron is Professor of History at the Collège de France

• AcknowledgmentsPreface: The site of an ancient urgency1. ‘I thought of these images, painted for you’2. Nachleben. The watchful shadows3. The Nine4. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, famosissimo e singularissimo maestro5. On each side: allegory, realism, resemblances6. Esto visibile parlare: the walls speak to us7. Guernica in the lands of Siena8. The seductions of tyranny (what the image conceals)9. Concord with its cords10. With the common good as lord11. What peace sees: narratives of spaces and talking bodies12. Well, now you can danceEpilogue: Vanishing pointAppendicesThe fresco of the Dala della Pace: silhouettes, inscriptions, identificationsInscriptions in the vernacular: transcription, edition and translationNotesPublished sourcesBibliographyPicture creditsIndex

"In his elegant, vivid prose, Patrick Boucheron comes as near as anyone can to allowing images to speak. Here, Lorenzetti’s paintings are not buried by texts and references: they tell us their own story, of a very direct equation between common good and communal government."John Watts, Corpus Christi College, Oxford"Italian communes took politics seriously. They adorned public spaces with edifying political allegories of bad and good government. Patrick Boucheron’s The Power of Images elegantly discusses Siena’s use of images – official wall-paintings – as a warning and a prompt, away from abuse of political power and towards justice for all. This is exciting history, and all too timely a read."Miri Rubin, Queen Mary University of London"This superbly written book invites us to reflect on both history and art, and entices us to go and experience Tuscany for ourselves" Livres Hebdo"Analyzing the fresco of 'Good Government' painted in Siena in the 14th century, Boucheron powerfully elucidates the nature of political representation."Philosophie Magazine