023

  • Justicia (Justice)

  • 1559
  • After Pieter Bruegel (the Elder, Flemish 1537-1612) by Philip Galle (Flemish 1537-1612)
  • Engraving, Gothic "P" watermark
  • 22.6 x 29.2 cm., 8-15/16 x 11-1/2" image
  • Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts Purchase in Honor of President Steven C. Bahls, with additional support from Sonja Knudsen, Mr. and Mrs. George and Pat Olson, with Courtesy of Mr. Harris Schrank, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College 2005.10

Essay by Steven C. Bahls, President

Pieter Bruegel's complementary sets of drawings, The Seven Deadly Sins (anger, sloth, lust, gluttony, avarice, pride and envy) and The Virtues (prudence, charity, justice, faith, hope, temperance and fortitude), became models for his two most popular series of engraved prints. In both series, a central allegorical figure is surrounded by other characters in a way designed to cause the viewer to think more deeply about sin and virtue. The allegorical figure at the base of the landscape in Justicia is Iusticia. She is the Roman equivalent of Hellenic Themis. The imageries of Iusticia and Themis have been combined to create a symbol familiar to all, Lady Justice, who hovers over scores of courthouses around the United States.

Around the pedestal which elevates Iusticia a mere step above her surroundings, a riot of official violence is being played out: a tortuous rack, a beheading, a flogging and a hand being cut off are sufficiently graphic that gallows and torture wheels on the horizon seem somehow less chilling by comparison. Each of these acts is committed by self-righteous persons, seemingly in the name of justice. Iusticia is oblivious to the world around her. Aloof and blindfolded, she stands as a statuesque symbol of justice, who neither sees nor understands the horrors done in her name. That Bruegel would surround Iusticia with such horrors is not surprising given the artist's time. Justicia was completed in about 1560. It was in 1547 that Henry II, King of France, tried heresy cases by setting up special courts, colloquially called "Burning Chambers."

Though Bruegel might have seen Iusticia's blindfold as allowing her to turn such a "blind eye" to the horrors wrought in her name, contemporary notions of Lady Justice view the blindfold more positively. Today, "Justice is blind" has a positive connotation, indicating that neither worldly wealth nor position can create advantage in her presence. Likewise neither race, gender nor creed should put one at a disadvantage when justice is blind.