Its first greatpainter, Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1255-1319), would have witnessed the emergence of the Nine: a civic democracy in which Siena, a rich merchant city-state, was ruled by nine elected citizens (aristocrats and lawyers were barred from standing for election).
One of the best known fileteado artists is Alfredo Genovese, whose Italian great grandfather was a decorative painter of public buildings and burial vaults in Buenos Aires.