Artfully crunching numbers

WASHINGTON -- There's little artful about the federal budget book -- it's thick, heavy and plain-looking. But in the Italian city-state of Siena during the 1200s, lawmakers made government balance sheets a work of art.

The unusual artwork is on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. It's the first time the items have been shown outside Italy.

In the 1200s, a large share of European trade and banking was centered in Siena, located on the direct route -- the Via Francigena -- between Rome and northern Europe.

When Siena's treasurer, a monk named Ugo di San Galgano, presented his accounts for the year 1258, the job was not considered complete until he called in an artist to paint a scene showing him at work. The image was painted on a wooden cover.

As with many such images, the painter is unknown, but some of the city's top artists were employed decorating the ledgers.

They may have included Duccio di Buoninsegna, founder of the Sienese school of painting and considered among the greatest Western painters.

To paint the scenes on the covers, the artist first put a thin layer of plaster over the wood and ground it smooth, then added a layer of gold -- a tradition already centuries old that gave a rich background to much religious painting. The artist did his actual scene over the gold surface in tempera: colored pigments mixed with egg yolk.

The Corcoran has borrowed 41 of them -- called biccherne (bee-CARE-nay) -- from the city archive, which usually shows only a few at a time. With them go a dozen colorfully illuminated manuscript books that told bureaucrats just how accounts should be kept.

Italian accountancy

Susan Badder, curator of the Corcoran show, called the biccherni "a fascinating window into the daily life of an Italian city-state and evolving republic."

Apparently the painters got a free hand in their choice of subjects and their work sometimes commented on budgetary matters.

"Characteristic of the secular regime of Siena was the belief that patronage of the arts was reflective of good government," says the description the Corcoran has posted on the wall of the exhibit.

Benvenuto di Giovanni, who did a noted mural for Siena's first bank, may have painted the cover in 1468, which looks at the financial situation in peace and war. It was a time of long conflicts with the nearby city of Florence, which later annexed Siena.

A fanciful blonde nude floats over the money counter illustrating peace, her hair neatly bound in a bun. Well-dressed merchants crowd around the counter, which is amply supplied with coins. Another nude floating over the counter represents war, and has wildly flying hair and flourishes a red sword. A cashier pays off an elaborately dressed mercenary, backed by two armed men, from a thinner stock of money.