[143] He began his work in 1337. [144] A similar mode of symbolising the Commune is chosen in the bas-reliefs of Archbishop Tarlati's tomb at Arezzo, where the discord of the city is represented by an old man of gigantic stature, throned and maltreated by the burghers, who are tearing out his hair by handfuls. Over this figure is written "Il Comune Pelato." [145] These were adopted as the ensign of Siena, in the Middle Ages. [146] In the year 1336, just before Ambrogio began to paint, the Sienese Republic had concluded a league with Florence for the maintenance of the Guelf party. The Monte de' Nove still ruled the city with patriotic spirit and equity, and had not yet become a forceful oligarchy. The power of the Visconti was still in its cradle; the great plague had not devastated Tuscany. As early as 1355 the whole of the fair order represented by Ambrogio was shaken to the foundation, and Siena deserved the words applied to it by De Commines. See Vol. L, _Age of the Despots_, p. 162, note 2. [147] Rio, perversely bent on stigmatising whatever in Italian art savours of the Renaissance, depreciates this lovely form of Peace. _L'Art Chrétien_, vol. i. p. 57. [148] See Muratori, vol. xxiii., or the passage translated by me in Vol. I., _Age of the Despots_, p. 480. [149] His "Madonna" in S. Domenico is dated 1221. For a full discussion of Guido da Siena's date, see Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i. pp. 180-185. [150] On their coins the Sienese struck this legend: "Sena vetus Civitas Virginis." It will be remembered how the Florentines, two centuries and a half later, dedicated their city to Christ as king. [151] Date of birth unknown; date of death, about 1320. [152] He is better known as Simone Memmi, a name given to him by a mistake of Vasari's. He was born in 1283 at Siena. He died in 1344 at Avignon. Petrarch mentions his portrait of Madonna Laura, in the 49th and 50th sonnets of the "Rime in Vita di Madonna Laura." In another place he uses these words about Simone: "Duos ego novi pictores egregios, nec formosos, Jottum Florentinum civem, cujus inter modernos fama ingens est, et Simonem Senensem."--_Epist. Fam._ lib. v. 17, p. 653. Petrarch proceeds to mention that he has also known sculptors, and asserts their inferiority to painters in modern times. [153] See above, Chapter IV, Theology and S. Dominic. Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle reject, not without reason, as it seems to me, the tradition that Simone painted the frescoes of S. Ranieri in the Campo Santo at Pisa. See vol. ii. p. 83. What remains of his work at Pisa is an altar-piece in S. Caterina. [154] To Simone is also attributed the interesting portrait of Guidoriccio Fogliani de' Ricci, on horseback, in the Sala del Consiglio. This, however, has been so much repainted as to have lost its character. [155] In S. Francesco at Pisa.