In Germany, unlike Italy, postwar politics has usually played safe and rarely been risqué. Yet Angela Merkel has suddenly embarked on a feelgood campaign. The famously stony-faced Chancellor permitted glimpses of her private life, allowing a women's magazine to observe her eating habits. It was at a public screening of the popular Communist-era love film The Legend of Paul and Paula, which apparently influenced her as a young woman growing up in the East, that she was obliged to deny the story about her past.

Merkel's campaign, some suggested, had turned personal to distract from a lack of vision. After all, her government had so far given the public very few hints as to what the next four years might look like if it were to remain in power. The assumption seems to be: Germany is doing well — why would you change anything? Or, as her party's patriarch Konrad Adenauer put it, "No experiments!"

To my mind, Merkel throwing on her feelgood costume was not just part of a snazzy campaign to woo voters with her charms (of which she has plenty). It was the modern dilemma of a leader trapped between modesty and courage. Back in Berlin, and watching her folding her hands into the distinctive diamond shape that has become a trademark of her public persona, I wondered about the iconographical potential of this gesture. What does it really mean?

In Siena's fresco, the display of "Good Government" is made up of several groups of figures. In the middle, there is a ruler sitting on a throne. To left and right, there are six personifications of virtue: Peace, Courage, Prudence, Generosity, Modesty and Justice. Above are the theological virtues: Mercy, Faith and Hope. Below, there is a procession of citizens representing the subordination of private to public interests. Good governance serves the common good. 

As I left the secluded space of Siena and drove into the green hills of Tuscany, I thought about this allegory. It shows a way of taking politics seriously: not just as an activity, but also as a test of integrity. By September 22, Germans will have to decide whether or not their Chancellor's modesty and prudence are proof enough of her virtue, or whether she is capable of courage too. She remains much more popular than her rivals, but we don't know her as well as we thought. 

How does Merkel's "first" life, lived under a "Bad Government", fit with what we know of her? There are three months left to answer the question: who is Angela Merkel really?