Lady Justice
An Anatomy of Allegory
Will be published approx. on 31. December 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-4744-8749-8 (ISBN)
Description
Lady 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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
With breathtaking erudition and nuance, Hayaert's Lady Justice shows us the historic power-juridical, ethical, affective-of this key allegorical figure. In Justice's gestures, postures, choreography, her contradictions and enigmas, we find both "the monstrosity of human judgement" and a longing to repair law's estrangement from justice. A major achievement. * Julie Stone Peters, Columbia University * A veritable treasure trove of Justices in multiple media, made in Europe mostly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and covering a rangy span from the 1300s to the early twenty-first century. In presenting such a gorgeous array (literally: images of almost all works discussed are beautifully reproduced in the book), Hayaert immeasurably enriches our discipline's reference points for imagining justice in female form. -- Isobel Roele * Frontiers of Sociolegal Studies *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 156 mm
Width: 234 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
662 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-8749-8 (9781474487498)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Valerie Hayaert is Research Fellow at the Criminal Justice Centre of the University of Warwick. She is author of Mens emblematica et humanisme juridique (Librairie Droz, 2008), co-editor with Mara R. Wade of Emblematica: Essays in Word and Image Volume 1 (Librairie Droz, 2017) and co-editor with Peter Goodrich of Genealogies of Legal Vision (Routledge, 2015).
Content
Introduction
Periodization; Terminus ante quem; Justitia and her siblings: the four cardinal virtues; Justitia's avatars: an art of gestural ethics; Lady Justice's polyonomy; Images in movement; Justicia and Vengeance; Before the Law; Sources; The two faces of Justice; Allegory as a medium for judicial reform; Interpretative plurality; Precellence' of women?An ethics of affects?
Chapter One: Images of Justice
Ekphrasis: Gregor Bersman; Ekphrastic epigrams of Justice; Goddess Justitia and the paradoxes of icones symbolicae; The Divine nature of Justice; A Judicial Ekphrasis; Bersman's emblemology: The Leipzig context; Justitia quadrata; Justice as Puritas; The Lorica Iustitiae; Books, Scales and Cornucopia; The Sword: Alienum Opus Facio; Bodily synecdoches; Conclusion; Appendix: Translation of Gregor Bersman's Imago Justitiae
Chapter Two: The paradoxes of Lady Justice's blindfold
The allegory as a composite body; A phenomenological approach to allegory; Early modern lawyers and their interpretation of the blindfold; Clarity and ecstasy; Is the blindfold an attribute? Clear-sighted Justice in Greek and Roman Antiquity; Sebastian Brandt and the fool blindfolding Justice; An astute interpretation by Pierre Ayrault; Jacob de Cater's emblematic verses; (Extra) Sensory Perception; The diaphanous blindfold; In praise of blindness; Continuing objections to the portrait of a blindfolded justice; Sculpting Justice: The co-existence of a clear-sighted and blindfolded Justice; The polysemy of the blindfold; Andre de Nesmond's Remonstrance; The Eye of the Law; Conclusion
Chapter Three: Lady Justice's Fingers: Gesture and Meaning
Gestural expressivity; The extended middle-finger as part of a mnemonic technique; Transitory Hieroglyphics; The horn gesture as apotropaic; Deictic index and judicial action; Gripping and handling; Hidden or discarded scales; Power-grip and precision-handling; The power-grip pattern as a visual rhetoric for a firm metrological order; Holding the scales: an archetype of honest weighing; The watchful eye combined with precision-handling; Conclusion
Chapter Four: Lady Justice's Posture: Sitting, Standing or Walking?
Judicial temperament; Sitting Judges; The Legal Status of the Sitting Judge; Sedendo et Dormiendo? The Judge as "Throne-Sharer of Dike"; Lady Justice's Throne; Standing Justices- The Myth of Astraea; Astraea as an Allegorical Body in Motion; Astraea as Justitia Victrix; The Departure of Astraea from Earth; Astraea, The Diva Fugax; The Countless Returns of the Goddess Astraea; Astraea before the Peasants; Seditious Lady Justice; Walking Justices; Fountains of Justice: Spatial Location and Communal Function; Reformed Cities: A New Vision of Justice; Divine Justice and Earthly Rulers; Lady Justice on the Forum; Conclusion: In the Orbit of Dame Justice
Chapter Five: Lady Justice and the Judge's Body: Maimed Hands, Bare Knee
The Effigy of the Amputated Judge; A case study: Lady Justice standing in front of the penitent judge; The Maimed Hands of the Bailiff; The Missing Hands: A Shaming Ritual? A Double Effigy of Justice; Marten de Vos' Adorodokia; Clemency; Knee Gestures; The Knee as 'Seat of Clemency'; Lady Justice's knee-gesture as an index of clemency; Justus Oldenkop's frontispiece as a judicial manifesto; The Bare Knee as a Sign of Virtue in General; George Reverdy's Allegory of Injustice; Nudity; Justitia meretrix: Lady Justice as a courtesan;Vanquishing Nudes; Conclusion
Chapter Six: Justitia's Body Movements: A Sensual Lesson in Symbolic Fascinatio
A fascinating introduction; Triangle; Justitia's Spatial Apparatus; Mechanical Justice; Kisses; The erotic kiss;The kiss in theology; The kiss in law; The kiss in politics; The kiss in economy; Polyglot and mystical kisses; Conclusion
Chapter Seven: Lady Justice's Fragility
The technology of inflicting death; Bruegel's Justitia; Sleeping Justice; Justitia's dispassion in the stage-management of capital punishment; The two swords of Lady Justice; Justice assaulted; Justice raped; Justice shackled and disheveled; The Michelfeldt Tapestry; Justitia inter arma; Justitia Vulnerata;Oppressed Justice; Justitia at the Crossroads
Epilogue: Why has Lady Justice survived until now?
Periodization; Terminus ante quem; Justitia and her siblings: the four cardinal virtues; Justitia's avatars: an art of gestural ethics; Lady Justice's polyonomy; Images in movement; Justicia and Vengeance; Before the Law; Sources; The two faces of Justice; Allegory as a medium for judicial reform; Interpretative plurality; Precellence' of women?An ethics of affects?
Chapter One: Images of Justice
Ekphrasis: Gregor Bersman; Ekphrastic epigrams of Justice; Goddess Justitia and the paradoxes of icones symbolicae; The Divine nature of Justice; A Judicial Ekphrasis; Bersman's emblemology: The Leipzig context; Justitia quadrata; Justice as Puritas; The Lorica Iustitiae; Books, Scales and Cornucopia; The Sword: Alienum Opus Facio; Bodily synecdoches; Conclusion; Appendix: Translation of Gregor Bersman's Imago Justitiae
Chapter Two: The paradoxes of Lady Justice's blindfold
The allegory as a composite body; A phenomenological approach to allegory; Early modern lawyers and their interpretation of the blindfold; Clarity and ecstasy; Is the blindfold an attribute? Clear-sighted Justice in Greek and Roman Antiquity; Sebastian Brandt and the fool blindfolding Justice; An astute interpretation by Pierre Ayrault; Jacob de Cater's emblematic verses; (Extra) Sensory Perception; The diaphanous blindfold; In praise of blindness; Continuing objections to the portrait of a blindfolded justice; Sculpting Justice: The co-existence of a clear-sighted and blindfolded Justice; The polysemy of the blindfold; Andre de Nesmond's Remonstrance; The Eye of the Law; Conclusion
Chapter Three: Lady Justice's Fingers: Gesture and Meaning
Gestural expressivity; The extended middle-finger as part of a mnemonic technique; Transitory Hieroglyphics; The horn gesture as apotropaic; Deictic index and judicial action; Gripping and handling; Hidden or discarded scales; Power-grip and precision-handling; The power-grip pattern as a visual rhetoric for a firm metrological order; Holding the scales: an archetype of honest weighing; The watchful eye combined with precision-handling; Conclusion
Chapter Four: Lady Justice's Posture: Sitting, Standing or Walking?
Judicial temperament; Sitting Judges; The Legal Status of the Sitting Judge; Sedendo et Dormiendo? The Judge as "Throne-Sharer of Dike"; Lady Justice's Throne; Standing Justices- The Myth of Astraea; Astraea as an Allegorical Body in Motion; Astraea as Justitia Victrix; The Departure of Astraea from Earth; Astraea, The Diva Fugax; The Countless Returns of the Goddess Astraea; Astraea before the Peasants; Seditious Lady Justice; Walking Justices; Fountains of Justice: Spatial Location and Communal Function; Reformed Cities: A New Vision of Justice; Divine Justice and Earthly Rulers; Lady Justice on the Forum; Conclusion: In the Orbit of Dame Justice
Chapter Five: Lady Justice and the Judge's Body: Maimed Hands, Bare Knee
The Effigy of the Amputated Judge; A case study: Lady Justice standing in front of the penitent judge; The Maimed Hands of the Bailiff; The Missing Hands: A Shaming Ritual? A Double Effigy of Justice; Marten de Vos' Adorodokia; Clemency; Knee Gestures; The Knee as 'Seat of Clemency'; Lady Justice's knee-gesture as an index of clemency; Justus Oldenkop's frontispiece as a judicial manifesto; The Bare Knee as a Sign of Virtue in General; George Reverdy's Allegory of Injustice; Nudity; Justitia meretrix: Lady Justice as a courtesan;Vanquishing Nudes; Conclusion
Chapter Six: Justitia's Body Movements: A Sensual Lesson in Symbolic Fascinatio
A fascinating introduction; Triangle; Justitia's Spatial Apparatus; Mechanical Justice; Kisses; The erotic kiss;The kiss in theology; The kiss in law; The kiss in politics; The kiss in economy; Polyglot and mystical kisses; Conclusion
Chapter Seven: Lady Justice's Fragility
The technology of inflicting death; Bruegel's Justitia; Sleeping Justice; Justitia's dispassion in the stage-management of capital punishment; The two swords of Lady Justice; Justice assaulted; Justice raped; Justice shackled and disheveled; The Michelfeldt Tapestry; Justitia inter arma; Justitia Vulnerata;Oppressed Justice; Justitia at the Crossroads
Epilogue: Why has Lady Justice survived until now?