Chapter Three: Obedience - The Judge as the Loyal Servant of the State

“The inspirational image of Justice as a virtuous goddess is commonplace in contemporary buildings.  But few of the weighty allegorical depictions that were ubiquitous from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries have come down to us.  These complex images were part of a tradition called exempla virtutis (examples of virtue) that identified acts “worthy of imitation” and therefore appropriate to display on town hall walls.  By unearthing the classical myths, biblical stories, and Renaissance emblems that make decipherable pictures that might otherwise be ignored, one can find many references to the violence entailed—both for the judged and for judges—in adjudication.”

Flayed Alive or Maimed: Judicial Obligations Inscribed on Town Hall Walls in Bruges and Geneva

The Challenge and Pain of Rendering Judgement: Amsterdam’s Seventeenth-Century Town Hall

“So Shall You Be Judged”