The Art of Law ― Artistic Representations and Iconography of Law and Justice in Context, from the Middle Ages to the First World War

The contributions to this volume were written by historians, legal historians and art historians, each using his or her own methods and sources, but all concentrating on topics from the broad subject of historical legal iconography. How have the concepts of law and justice been represented in (public) art from the Late Middle Ages onwards? Justices and rulers had their courtrooms, but also churches, decorated with inspiring images. At first, the religious influence was enormous, but starting with the Early Modern Era, new symbols and allegories began appearing. Throughout history, art has been used to legitimise the act of judging, but artists have also satirised the law and the lawyers; architects and artisans have engaged in juridical and judicial projects and, in some criminal cases, convicts have even been sentenced to produce works of art. The book illustrates and contextualises the various interactions between law and justice on the one hand, and their artistic representations in paintings, statues, drawings, tapestries, prints and books on the other.

Georges Martyn studied Law (1984-89) and Medieval Studies (1989-91) in Leuven (Belgium) and obtained a PhD degree in Law at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1996, with a dissertation on private law legislation in the early modern Netherlands. He has been an ‘advocaat’ (barrister/lawyer) between 1992 and 2008 at the bar of Kortrijk, is now honorary member of the Ghent bar, and is a substitute justice of the peace. He is full professor at the Law Faculty of Ghent University, teaching ‘History of Politics and Public Law’, ‘General Introduction to Belgian Law’ and ‘Law & the Humanities’. His publications deal with legal history in the Netherlands in the Early Modern Era, the reception of Roman law, the legal professions, the evolution of the sources of the law in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and legal iconography and iconology. He is a member of the Belgian Royal Commission for the Edition of the Old Law, the Flemish editor-in-chief of the Belgian-Dutch legal history review Pro Memorie and co-editor of the series Studies in the History of Law and Justice.
Xavier Rousseaux is research director at the National Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) and professor at the Universite catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Centre for Law & Justice History. Working extensively on of the history of crime and justice, in 2007-2012, he coordinated the BELSPO Network Justice and Society, and Justice and Populations. The Belgian experience in international Perspective, 1795-1950.