Its first great painter, Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1255-1319), would have witnessed the emergence of the Nine: a civic democracy in which Siena, a richmerchant city-state, was ruled by nine elected citizens (aristocrats and lawyers were barred from standing for election).
He was born in Assisi in 1181 or 1182, the son of a rich cloth merchant, and he enjoyed a carefree adolescence and youth, particularly with troubadours.