The Picture of Justice

Many years later, for some reason, I thought of this picture once more, and tried to find it on the Internet. I knew neither the name of the Painter, nor the name of the picture. I telephoned my mother, and asked her to look it up in the Encyclopedia, and give me the painter’s name. The name was Pascal Dagnan Bouveret.

Even armed with this information, I could find no picture on the net, of this image. There were plenty of other paintings by him, but no record of this one. I could only imagine that no one thought it was good enough to put forward as an example of his work.

I’m not an artist, and have really no clue as to what separates good art from bad. All I know, is that this image haunted me. It was only recently that I finally took the step of taking the Encyclopedia, and getting the relevant page scanned. I corrected the contrast in Picasa, and the result is as you see. The picture has been uploaded to flickr under the caption “Justice is Calm, Justice is Fair”.

I’ve now set it as my desktop background. I’ve never seen any picture of Justice like it. Most of the pictures feature the traditional blindfolded woman with the scales over her eyes. No personality at all. This picture touches me because I can imagine facing her in a dispute, and feeling secure that she will listen to what I have to say fairly and patiently. No misunderstanding can take place under her eyes.

At the same time, I would not want to be under the scrutiny of that gaze if I had something to hide. I am only too aware of the sword that leans against her, so ready to be picked up and used against the guilty.

One cannot miss the unmistakable majesty of the figure. Only after a while do you realize she’s wearing a cloak, and then understand that it becomes her even more. No better caption can be had than, “Justice is calm. Justice is fair”