Lady Justice : An Anatomy of Allegory / Valérie Hayaert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hayaert, Valérie, author.

Series:

Edinburgh studies in law, justice, and the visual.

Edinburgh Studies in Law, Justice and the Visual Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Justice in art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (208 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh, Scotland : Edinburgh University Press Ltd, [2023]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Dismembers and remembers the sensual and spiritual body of Lady Justice in a wholly novel interpretation of the optical allegory of IustitiaPresents an original theory of the blindfold on JusticeIncludes case studies of the allegorical significance of all of the attributes of JusticeDraws on early modern sources including forensic speeches, epigrams, eulogies, formal discourses and commentaries on cases to offer a new paradigm of judicial actioPresents new critical analyses of key Latin texts, subjecting them to critical philological scrutiny for the first timeCategorizes images of Lady Justice through a range of parameters: their plasticity, accessibility, their effect of presence, their material link to the space dispositive and their plastic salienceLady Justice: An Anatomy of Allegory leaves conventional readings of this pivotal figure in European legal history far behind. Hayaert's study brings together an analysis of thousands of images from the period 1400 - 1600, many of them previously overlooked, including artwork, frontispieces, legal texts, sculptures and statues in public spaces and in court buildings scattered across six countries. Lady Justice is taken apart and considered afresh - organ by organ, limb by limb, digit by digit, making a case for a treatment of allegory in all its complexity, ambiguity and affective force.This unique interdisciplinary study exceeds the iconographic orthodoxy of art historians and the reductive interpretations of legal historians alike. Setting aside styles and schools, ranging widely across time and space, Hayaert identifies Lady Justice as the seat of law's conscience, an archetype of the judge's daimon, and an affective, numinous address to all who, over the course of seven centuries, have found themselves moved by her redolent and inextinguishable presence.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 Images of Justice

2 The paradoxes of Lady Justice's blindfold

3 Lady Justice's fingers: gesture and meaning

4 Lady Justice's posture: sitting, standing or walking?

5 Lady Justice and the judge's body: maimed hands, bare knee

6 Justitia's body movements: a sensual lesson in symbolic fascinatio

7 Lady Justice's fragility

Epilogue: why has Lady Justice survived until now?

Bibliography

Index nominum

Index rerum

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 09. Dez 2023)

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

1-4744-8750-5