Dear all, this week we will have another guest from Belgium, Prof. Georges Martyn from Ghent University, who will talk about a very different but certainly fascinating topic: law and iconography. Here you can find the complete list of suggested readings as well as Prof. Martyn cv. We will focus on the first 4 readings.
1) C. HAIGHT FARLEY, “Imagining the law”, in A. SARAT, M. ANDERSON &C.O. FRANK (eds.), Law and the Humanities. An introduction, Cambridge,University Press, 2010, 292-312.
2) G. MARTYN, “Painted Exempla Iustitiae in the Southern Netherlands”in R. SCHULZE (ed.), Symbolische Kommunikation voor Gericht in der FrühenNeuzeit (= Schriften zur Europäischen Rechts- und Verfassungsgeschichte,LI), Berlijn, Duncker & Humblot, 2006, 335-356.
3) S. BOLLA, “L’avvocato con gli stivali. Divagazioni sull’immaginedell’avvocato nella cultura popolare” in Forschungen zur Rechtsarchäologieund Rechtlichen Volkskunde, X, Zürich, 1988, 85-125.
4) S. L'ENGLE, "Legal Iconography", in S. L’ENGLE and R. GIBBS (eds.), Illuminating the Law. Legal Manuscripts in Cambridge Collections (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum 3 November – 16 December 2001), London, 2001, 75-104.
5) A.H. MANCHESTER and M.A. BECKER-MOELANDS, “An introduction to iconographical studies of legal history” in W.M. GORDON and T.D. FERGUS(eds.), Legal history in the making. Proceedings of the ninth British legalhistory conference, Glasgow, 1989, London, 1991, 85-94.
Outline:
Wednesday: Introduction on Law and Iconography (articles by HAIGHT-FARLEY and MANCHESTER/BECKER-MOELANDS).
Thursday: The history of the allegory of Lady Justice (articles by L'ENGLE and BOLLA).
Friday: Late medieval Flemish 'exempla iustitiae' (article by MARTYN).
Outline:
Wednesday: Introduction on Law and Iconography (articles by HAIGHT-FARLEY and MANCHESTER/BECKER-MOELANDS).
Thursday: The history of the allegory of Lady Justice (articles by L'ENGLE and BOLLA).
Friday: Late medieval Flemish 'exempla iustitiae' (article by MARTYN).
Prof. Martyn's CV:
Georges Martyn (Avelgem (B), 1966) studied Law (1984-89) and Medieval Studies (1989-91) in Leuven and received his Ph.D. in Legal History at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1996. He has been an ‘advocaat’ (barrister/lawyer) between 1992 and 2008 and is a substitute justice of the peace in Kortrijk (B) since 1999. He is professor at the University of Ghent (Department of Jurisprudence and Legal History) since 1999. He teaches and published books on ‘History of Politics and Public Law’, ‘General Introduction to Belgian Law’ and ‘Legal Methodology’. His scientific articles consider the history of legislation in the Netherlands in early modern times, the reception of Roman law, the evolution of the sources of the law in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and legal iconography (http://www.rechtsgeschiedenis.be/).
Georges Martyn (Avelgem (B), 1966) studied Law (1984-89) and Medieval Studies (1989-91) in Leuven and received his Ph.D. in Legal History at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1996. He has been an ‘advocaat’ (barrister/lawyer) between 1992 and 2008 and is a substitute justice of the peace in Kortrijk (B) since 1999. He is professor at the University of Ghent (Department of Jurisprudence and Legal History) since 1999. He teaches and published books on ‘History of Politics and Public Law’, ‘General Introduction to Belgian Law’ and ‘Legal Methodology’. His scientific articles consider the history of legislation in the Netherlands in early modern times, the reception of Roman law, the evolution of the sources of the law in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and legal iconography (http://www.rechtsgeschiedenis.be/).
I would like to highlight the fact that Stefano Bolla is what Germans could define a "juristdichter" because he comes from a family of jurists and he is a jurist himself and he also wrote a legal novel. I found it on the internet,although the info about him is not complete. This is also to answer to two questions of an older post.
RispondiEliminaPaola Federici.
Paola Federici
Dear RomaTre students,
RispondiEliminaI am looking forward to 'entertain' you later this week on 'Law and Iconography', a vast subject I shall try to introduce to you by some examples. In the lectures I shall use a lot of images, but it is certainly not my purpose to overwhelm you with names of artists, books and court cases. In order to make it easier for you to follow the course, I have sent a general outline of my lectures to dr. Gialdroni, with kind demand to distribute the pdf-file to you. (I shall be glad to send it to you personally as well, if you ask for it by mailing to Georges.Martyn@ugent.be.)
In the mentioned document you will also find some bibliographical references, in case you want to read more...
If everything runs as foreseen, I shall introduce the theme of 'law and iconography' to you on Wednesday afternoon (in preparation, it is recommended to read the articles by HAIGHT-FARLEY and MANCHESTER/BECKER-MOELANDS).
Thursday morning I schedule to talk to you on the history of the allegory of Lady Justice and the image of lawyers in early modern times (in preparation, it is recommended to read the articles by L'ENGLE and BOLLA).
On Friday I plan to teach on the late medieval Flemish 'exempla iustitiae' (an article of mine on the subject was also put at your disposal).
Please feel free to put any question to me or make any suggestion, now already by mail, or the next days in the class room.
This kind of guest lectures is a unique opportunity for both students and professors to engage in an interactive debate.
I have the best memories of my visit to your faculty last year and I am convinced that, this spring again, we shall get along together well.
I thank my colleagues Conte, Zeno-Zencovich and Gialdroni for inviting me and I thank you for your enthusiasm. See you soon,
Georges Martyn
It's such a pity nobody draws pictures or miniatures in our boring law textbooks!!!
RispondiEliminaToday I noticed that It could be very useful for a better comprehension of cases and explanatory examples!
Best
Anna Leonetti
I'm agree with Anna! Furthermore, if we put aside the symbolic images (i mean the rapresentation of Virtues or the scales et similia), we can notice that some of the pictures that we have seen today seem to constitute a sort of "legal storytelling",their narrative ability is quite remarkable and i suppose that they represented an important mean to explain a certain message and to spread it to the audience (qualified or not qualified).
RispondiEliminaObviously it is only an aspect of all the possible relations between law and iconography, but it is very interesting!
Best
Alessia Guaitoli
Hi everybody! I found yesterday's lesson very interesting too and I agree with Anna and Alessia when they say that some pictures in our books could be useful for our comprehension.
RispondiEliminaOne thing more impressed me: the never ending problem about the freedom in concluding contracts. The case about the tattooed guy that will send his skin after his death his quite an horrible vision. It made me remember about the contract about a pound of human flesh in the Merchant of Venice. I think that in this case we should limit the freedom to sale bodies!
See you later!
Today Prof. Martyn ,during our lesson , named "Cesare Beccaria", about his criminal works...
RispondiEliminaI immediately thought of Cesare Lombroso and his studies about the human nature and the human behaviours.
In this sense he argued that from the kind and the breadth of human skull it was possible to understand if a man could become a criminal, a thief or a murderess or if he'd become crazy or insane.
Infact, he stated people are not able to decide their nature, but their nature and their behaviours are already in themselves and it was not possible to change them.
He did not give any "chance" to human beings to change their way to be and to behave.
In his books he outlined his ideas on this subject, and to better understand to the readers these theories he accompanied the text with many drawings and sketches on the various forms of skull.
I think this could be a useful way to help the readers in the comprehension of the text...!
(in the law books which I studied I really needed this kind of approach!)
Hovewer, I think Lombroso used to link in a very actual way Law & Iconography.
Last year I saw a really interesting exhibition in Siena, called "Arte, Genio e Follia", in which a whole section was dedicated to Lombroso's skull drawings...!!Wonderful!
I'd like to suggest another reading I think is really connected with the subject of our lessons:
"Candide, ou L'Optimisme" by Voltaire, in which is shown a world in a very particular way: I used to connect this book to "Elogio della Follia",by Erasmo da Rotterdam... about it Prof. Martyn explained very well on today lesson...!!!
See you tomorrow,
Flavia Mancini
After today's class, It is even clearer to me the importance of iconography: I mean, how many times we see a work (a statue, a painting, a panel etc) superficially, without grasping his true meaning? Just knowing some elementary and basilar elements, a work acquires really soon a specific and peculiar meaning that instead we would ignored: the case of the Tree is just one of the examples that come to my mind: I would not have given any importance to it (maybe a simple element of landscape, nothing more), but now I understand that his presence in a work has a specific meaning and a specific tradition. The same for the hat, or the scepter, and so on.
RispondiEliminaIt’s also fascinating to see how the representation of justice, sometimes with some different details, is remained substantially unchanged, from antiquity, to middle ages (I remember some metres in latin that I read under the representation of Justice of Giotto, “Equa lance cuncta librat perfecta iusticia coronando bonos vibrat ensem contra vicia”, that Is – sorry for my poor translation! - “With equal scales weighs all things, perfect justice, while crowning the justs ,vibrates the sword against the vices”) until today: I’m referring for instance to some caricatures, which show a blindfolded Justice with a sword or the scales (although the idea of a symmetrical justice, affecting equally all guilty - I think - has always been an aspiration, a target to be achieved).
I was also considering that in front of a justice administered for centuries by men, we have a female representation of Justice, it is really strange, though probably this element has no special meaning!
Best Regards,
Alessia Guaitoli
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RispondiEliminaHi everybody! Today’s lesson made me wondering about many themes.
RispondiEliminaAbout the relationship between law and religion, for instance, it is very interesting to think about our way to follow the bible, or the ten commands, that are supposed to be important rules, and the way Muslims approach with the Koran and the “shari’a” .
For them the Koran and the “Sunna”, which are what the Prophet Mahomet said, are the source of the “shari’a” (the law), it is as the bible influenced civil laws…
One more relationship with our way of thinking about law and iconography and the Islamic world is the use of pictures that in our culture is widespread, both in religious contest and in different contests, like art of course, instead if we look at the Koran or if we go to a mosque, we discover that any kind of representation is forbidden. Islamic art is their way to write, they can write a word in many ways and make it seem a draw.
About blindfolded justice I think that it could also be seen as a representation of bad justice. I mean that the blindness could also mean that the justice, the judge, is not able to look at the concrete case but he just apply the law that somebody else read to him, as we saw in some pictures. If on one hand this blindness make the justice impartial because she isn’t influenced by the appearance of the two parties, on the other hand the mechanic application of the rule could provoke iniquity instead ok justice. The scales, in my opinion of course, represent the equilibrium between the general rule and what we call concrete case, when there is this equilibrium we have justice.
One last idea that came up in my mind concerns the strange reaction of people in Saramago’s book that become blind, it made me relate it to Rhinoceros of Ionesco. We have a similar situation: suddenly people change but here they transform into rhinocéros…
I know that the reason that provoked this change are absolutely different, but the sudden change in one book makes me immediately remembering what happens in the other.
See you tomorrow!
During the lesson, when Prof. Georges Martyn showed the illustration about the "execution in effigie", my mind instantly thought to the posthumous trial of Pope Formoso, and to the famous paint of Jean-Paul Laurens depicting it (that you can see clicking here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Jean_Paul_Laurens_Le_Pape_Formose_et_Etienne_VII_1870.jpg)
RispondiEliminaThe story of this trial (also called Cadaver Synod) is very curious. A successor of Formoso, Pope Sthephan VI, decided to start a trial, because he thought that Formoso was unworthy to be pope. So the corpse of Formoso was disinterred, dressed with papal vestments and seated on the throne of Peter in Lateran Basilica. Then the trial was started, and Formoso (or his corpse) was found guilty. What remained of his corpse was cutted in pieces and thrown in Tevere.
But the successor of Stephan IV, Pope Sergius III, later rehabilitated Formoso. In fact, the damnatio memoriae of Formoso caused many problems in consacration of Bishops and their apostolic successors, and so the lack of a reabhilitation of Formoso could had created serious problem in the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church.
Massimo Marini
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RispondiEliminaHi everybody,
RispondiEliminaI'm sorry for not posting comments on this blog earlier. Although I am not used to this and it is not common in the Netherlands to discuss lectures on a weblog and post comments, I believe it is very useful and a good way to exchange thoughts. I tried to post comments before, but it didn't work and I got error notifications all the time. Now I'm trying on an other computer and hope it will work.....Nevertheless, In my opinion today's and yesterday's lecture from prof. Martyn were very interesting (like in fact all the other lectures till now). Images play a significant role in (law)society and I also did like to see this from another perspective than Italian. Many western-european artists and painters were used as example and of course I recognized many of them. Therefore, it is interesting to see that law (and iconography) can be understand from different points of view and I believe it is both interesting.
Furthermore, I think nowadays images and icongraphy are still very important. For example, in court (in the netherlands) no photographers are allowed and the press makes drawnings of the persons in court. Afterwards, they can be showed on the news or in papers to illustrate the situation. Perhaps this is not a very good example and exactly the same thing, but it makes clear that iconography is important and used all the time....
See you all tomorrow, bye!
Marieke van der Linden
Very interesting the iconography in general and in particular about Law.
RispondiEliminaSo... I would show to all, and to Prof. Martyn, my favourite statue of "Lady Justice".
http://www.aiacatania.it/aiacatania/citta_di_catania/images/palazzo_di_giustizia.jpg
http://www.siciliamillennium.it/pal%20giustizia%2015nov.JPG
It is the very big statue which stands on front of the entrance of the Palace of Justice in my birthplace, my lovely town Catania (in Sicily)!
It is the first precept that I remeber about Justice. I remember when my parents took me about this statue. I was very young (maybe 4 or 5 years old).
It is an inusual represention of Lady Justice.
She is in a very authoritative pose (height about 10 m) and she has the hands with the palm to the top. On the palms there are two men.
One is covering his face for shame; the other, on the contrary, is watching the world with pride.
The meaning is... if you are innocent, Lady Justice knows this, and you must not have fear of nothing!
If you are guilty... Lady Justice shows this to all!
I hope you enjoy this statue as me!
See you tomorrow!
Emanuele Vaccaro
Hi everybody! I'd like to thank prof. Martyn for these impressive lessons and I agree with the importance of images in our studies, above all because this is the "homo videns" time and we can't understimate the relationship between the law and the iconography.
RispondiEliminaYesterday, for istance, we saw that the scales were a symbol already known in Egipt because they were used by the goddess Maat for the judgemet of the souls.
Then, within the Copt Church, happened the transition of the scales from Maat to the archangel Michel that we saw represented again in different most recent paintings near Lady Justice. In this way, I found very useful the images to realize the sacred aspects of the justice.
Best,
Valerio
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RispondiEliminaAfter these three days of lesson of prof.Martyn, I have to admit that I'm really impress on the amount of sources concerning with legal iconography.
RispondiEliminaI couldn't imagine how so many paintings, drawings, statues, manuscripts, decorations are so deeply connected with law and justice,
giving as a full idea, as how they were symbolized and represented during the past. It was very interesting to go through all these images, discovering the meanings of many symbols such as: the three, the sword, the scale and the blindfolded of 'lady justice'.
Even Prof. Martyn focused like Prof. Watt did, on satirical and critical images concerning judges, advocates and procurators.
Using the caricatured of Daumier he stressed the 'avaritia advocatorum' and the leziness of judges. For instance many paintings deal with the corruption of judges.
It is important to emphasize the interdisciplinary connection through law, art, art history, literature and religion as we have seen in these lessons.
Best
Valentina Di Pietrantonio
This comment is by Hélène Bellenger:
RispondiEliminaHi all!
Yesterday prof. Martyn has given a very interesting lesson about Law and Iconography!
The term “legal iconography” is linked to the study of images, symbols and artistic expressions ,representing law and justice ,used in juridical activities; it’s closely related to legal archeology, nearly related to legal folklore and mostly studied by legal historians. Prof. Martyn tried to explain all this connections ,he showed us a lot of images in which the Justice is represented in different ways.
In my opinion an example of legal archaeology could be the black stone found in the city of Susa, (now Iraq), by the French and today preserved at Louvre Museum in Paris. On this stone there is the description of legal rules: that is the Hammurabi Code.
Prof. Martyn stressed also Iconography in touch with religious art (Religious images are used by all major religions to a certain extent, including both Indian and Abrahamic faiths, and often contain highly complex iconography, which reflects centuries of accumulated tradition. ).
(I especialy liked the advertasing of coca cola : This is my blood" wish could show how religion can also be used by marketing, trade..)
At the end of the lesson we saw some images in which there were depicted the procedure of punishment for legal violations .
I think that it would be very interesting to make a comparison of different forms of images that the leaders used to prove their power and force .
Anyway the lesson was very interesting and stimulating !
All best !
Hélène Bellenger
The last lectures have definitely changed my way of seeing Iconography and Art in general. I have always thought I wasn't be able to "read" Tapestries, so I was not interested in them. And actually it was true, but I have to notice that going deep on them means that you can experience what was the way of living in a particular century and, more specific, the way of working as a lawyer or a judge.
RispondiElimina1) It really impressed me to see that during the centuries what where the religious topics became law ones: nowadays we always think of the lawyers, the notaries and the judges as people whose biggest desire is to earn money, living ethic apart, but this is not what the Dutch Tapestries showed to us. It is true that the most of them had been depicted to advice who had to judge to behave right, but this does not chenge the fact tha law is linked with ethic much more than this Era of "no ideals at all"would like to convince us of.
2) Professor Martyn explained that drawing what you would be done if you did not behave well was during the Enlightenings a good way to impress people. And I think it's true. When we saw some of the drawings of the criminal sanctions, it suddenly came to my mind that I had seen something similar in a book of Umberto Eco, called "La misteriosa fiamma della Regina Loana". It is an illustrated book. The author lets the reader see what happened to people who did not behave well in the 19th century in Italy: skinned people, burned people, etc etc.Thi is significant, I think, because the main character in the book has lost his memory and tries to recollect all the things he had seen and read in his childhood and he immediately recognised those drawings for the scabrousness and cruelty of the detailes, mostly because it was something that really happened.
3)I really liked the lecture of Friday because I learned something about the folklore of the Fleming cities and the particular evolution of the sense of law: starting from the process making in the courtyard, under a big, tall tree, to get closer to God, continuing with the ones under th churches' porches, always to give an ethic and religious print of the judgement, then with the secret chamber and all the allegorical figures, and finally with the portraits of the King of Belgium.
4) I have learnt that there was a figure, the proctor, who earned a lot of money without a specific study,just practising, in spite of a lawyer, ethically more appreciated in Belgium and with a degree that attested his hard work. This fact reminded me the different ways of considering jobs here in Italy. I mean, in Belgium, culture had always been considered more important than practicsl skills, but this is not common here. In the last two decades the number of graduated people and particular branches of the jobs are increased notably in Italy, whereas in other Countries tapestries of the 17th century show us that!
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RispondiEliminaDear all, I've just read Emanuele's post about Lady justice in Catania and I agree with him, it's a nice and huge statue, and I love it too. When you get there you feel so small next to her... Thank Emanuele, I didn't remember the meaning of the two men standing in her hands.
RispondiEliminaSee you.
Dear all,
RispondiEliminaI think it was very interesting to discover the sceptre as a theme from these pictures to illustrate the person with power. Although from looking at paintings individually I may have recognised that this person was a figure of importance, I had not previously made the link between a variety of pictures and this being a theme. I think these pictures are a good way to see how the courts were organised all those years ago, but also to see how the people of the time perceived the court.
I particularly found the images of St. Michael interesting as this was the name of my secondary school and on my school blazer, the badge had a picture or a sword and of a scales and I had not previously known the significance of this. Underneath the badge was written, 'Quis ut deus' which means 'Who is like God'.
I have never really studied any of the subjects we are studying currently in depth, and I am grealty enjoying learning about other aspects of law!
Sarah Harmsworth
Dear RomaTre-Law & Humanities-students,
RispondiEliminaIt was a joy teaching to you last week and I thank you very much for your enthousiastic comments on this blog. Unfortunately I was not able to read and comment earlier, as I was one of those many travellers stranded in the airport. I had a first plane cancelled and a second postponed for days, but meanwhile I managed to get a train ticket to Paris and with only two days delay I got home in Ghent.
I want to express my special gratefulness to the bloggers for pointing at some very interesting works of legal iconography I didn't know yet.
- The reference made by Emanuele Vaccaro to the Catania Lady Justice, is particularly interesting! Un impressive monument indeed.
- The reference Flavia made to Cesare Lombroso is very interesting too. Unfortunately, I have not seen the 'Arte, genio e follia' exhibition, but the link between drawings of skulls and portraits on the one hand and the idea of 'nature's human expression of vices' is well known. The topic is treated in the collection of the Ghent psychiatry museum 'Dokter Guislain', but also in the 'Crime et châtiment' exhibition now on show in the Quai d'Orsay museum in Paris. Even in your own Roman Criminology Museum (I visited last thursday afternoon) there are some examples of such portraits. For well known top works of art, see the 'monomane', 'cleptomane' or 'aliéné' paintings by Géricualt (just type the words in Google images and you will find).
- Many of you refer to the important link between law and religion. Important indeed! I had not yet realised the big differences with Islam, where images are indeed prohibited. Thank you for making me think on that divergence!
- Massimo made a nice link with the Cadaver Synod. Indeed quite something spectacular! The painting is of course one of these many representations we have to be very careful about! The painting was made one millennium after the facts! But I agree that there might be some analogies between 'hanging a painting' (execution in effigie) and 'condemning a dead man'. Posthumous trials are on the other hand not so exceptional in the middle ages, people who committed suicide, for instance, were put to trial and penalised.
- Eleonora mentions the relation between the tree, the staff, the sceptre and the sword. Many articles and books have been written on this subject (I refer especially to the German articles on 'Stab und Schwert' mentioned in the bibliograhy). It is a pretty much debated theme whether originally the sovereign was considered the highest judge and his legislative authority was only a derived competence; or, the other way aroun, if the sovereign is at first a ruler and only in second instance a judge. According to iconography: both as a judge and as a ruler he holds a (wooden) staff (later sceptre)(derived from the original tree). When the judge also holds a sword, this refers more to the 'execution' than to the 'decision'. (But again, this is pretty much debated...)
- The drawings made by legal journalists in the Netherlands and elsewhere, mentioned by Marieke, form also indeed a beautiful source of legal iconography. I for myself, I think it really strange that still today these drawings are allowed, but photographs are not.
Best wishes from Flanders!
Georges Martyn
I think iconography in law, and even in others fileds, is important because it represents the social conscience in a historical period. In fact studying the symbols we can understand the evolution of law in the society. An example is given by the text "L'avvocato con gli stivali" that shows lawyers as animals(like cats oer foxes) or as monsters with demonic features(alluding to the image of the devil). Thanks to these representations we understand the mistrust of the popular culture in law and especially in its application. In fact lawyers were symbols of avidity and cunning in the culture of this period. They were called “eaters” because of their ability in enriching at the expense of others.
RispondiEliminaAlso Lady Justice represents the feeling of justice in the society. Indeed she was originally not blindfolded. Justitia was commonly represented blind only since the end of fifteenth century. I think it means that in this period culture changed and people needed to affirm and to underline that jutice must be objective and impartial, whithout favouritism. So iconography in law lets us understand the common vision of justice in differents historical periods, and the cultural evolution in society.
Dear Professor Martyn,
RispondiEliminaI'm so sorry for your misadventure in returning in Ghent...
I want to thank you for the very interesting lessons, you gave me the possibility to know some painters which I didn't know, as Jan Van Eyck or Oscar Kokoschka, for example.
I also thank you for suggesting me to visit these places.
I'll visit the Roman Criminology Museum as soon as possible, and during my summer holidays in France I'll try to visit 'Crime et châtiment', I've seen that it'll last until 27th of June...hoping for an extension of the exhibition in July!!
Best Wishes,
Flavia Mancini
Whilst reading 1) C. HAIGHT 'Imagining the Law' I was drawn to the idea of 'Cultural Internationalism', which promotes the idea that art like any other goods should be freely traded. Some opposers to this view contest that it allows for forgeries, fakes and general copying. Others who follow the idea of Cultural Internationalism argue that to 'deny artists the right to copy is to deny their right to be creative.' This idea of ‘copying’ that has been explored in the lectures, led me to discover the case involving the Chapman Brothers (current British Artists who dominated the contemporary art scene in the 1990s.) After acquiring a set of etchings and prints from Goya's 'Disasters of War' series (1810-1820) the artists went about copying and even defacing the famous works of art and in doing so created new pieces of art work, in a sort of 'unconsented collaboration.' One such work, 'Great Deeds Against the Dead' (1994) taken from 'Plate 39' of Goya's series has become something of a trademark for the Chapmans, despite its clear reference, or 'copying' of a work by another artist. But do the artists have a right to do this within copyright laws? They bought the works for £25,000 but does this mean they are justified in doing as they will because they have a kind of economic validation? The Berne Convention states that 'artworks shall not be willfully altered or copied for profit,' but in this case it would seem that vandalism has added value. The Chapman Brothers answered critics at the time by citing Robert Rauschenberg's 'Erased de Kooning Drawing' where the artist asked de Kooning to donate a valuable drawing so that he could then erase it. However the Chapman Brothers cannot be justified in this approach as they did not have the consent of the author, where as Rauschenberg did. What makes the Chapman Brothers able to allude copyright laws or at least be granted the protection of the law on their so called ‘rectified’ Goya images? Or in broader terms how can the law grant certain artists' work legal protection when art today is so subjective?
RispondiEliminaI really enjoyed the professor Martyn’s lessons and I think it was very usefull to understand how deep the link and interaction between law , art, history and religion is. In addition I have discovered some curiosities such as the meaning of the “yellow colour”, the history and the importance of the wood stuff and the figure of the procurator.
RispondiEliminaThe painting of Van Dyck, “Crucifixion with Mary Magdalen” is one of the examples wich shows how the art is also a subject matter of the law and of its rules and not only about the intellectual property and the author’s rights (such as in the case of Mondrian’s “Red, yellow, blu). In fact this painting has been abolished by the Council of Trent on December 1563, because of the yellow colour Mary Magdalene was wearing, when the yellow was considered a bad, wrong colour of the evil, and women wearing yellow were considered public
women.
As well as the “yellow”, also the wood stuff, depicted always in the hand of Lady Justice or of the one who has the power to judge, is also very sinificant. In the past the judgments took place in the open air, on the hill, where ther was a big tall tree, which represented the divine power that leggitimated the authority to judge.
Another important symbol, depicted in many pictures linked with the justice, is the hat which symbolizes the lawyer, and especially the red one which represented the authority. The hat was also one of the distinction between the lawyer and the proctor, who had to be able just to read and write and who had not any legal degree. The procurator was the representative of the part in the judgment and he had to deal with te initial procedure, but they were very criticized by the common opinion, especially in the early modern time, because their practice were well payed and thanks to the limited number of the proctors in the pubblic office they earned a lot of money, while the advocatus had a great prestige and was considered a free professional
In addition from the lessons of professor Martyn we also have realized how paintings, drawings, statues, illustrated books and portraits want to illustrate the reality of the time and the impression the people has about the society and also about the contemporary law and order.
Pajevic Ivana
I'm very sorry that I missed two lessons last week because I was very fascinated by the Wednesday class. For me it's amazing the fact that I can follow a law lecture in which we can see paints and discuss about them. It's something I couldn't believe before!
RispondiEliminaProf. Martyn talked to us about Wim Delvoye, an artist that tattooed some pigs. This artist in a second moment has shown his tattooed skin to a museum and he said that after his death he want to devise it to a museum. Some people said that it was against the human rights. So what is the limit of a contract? This point make me think to the Merchant of Venice and in particular to the possibility to mention in the contract a piece of flash as an object of the contract itself.
I know that is an old questioning but to a careful examination it is a very very current starting point for debate.
Camilla Bonadies
I found really interesting, in the article "Painted Exempla Iustitiae in the Southern Netherlands", the relationship between divine justice and human justice in the representations of tapestries in the town halls and in the court halls. In particular, the transition from the Last Judgment in its original conception, full of religious charge, to the following kinds of Last Judgment featuring images of important politic personalities like Philip the Fair, sovereign of the Netherlands, or the Emperor Charles V, whose right hands uplift the sword of justice. In a sense, I consider more interesting the Netherlands, Low Countries and Belgium experiences with their paintings, than the French experience where we can just find the crucifix in the justice halls(until they were removed).
RispondiEliminaBetween all the "exempla iustitiae" we focused on, I liked first the representation of "Justice of Duke Herkinbald" in the Golden Chambre of the Brussels Town Hall. Of course, it is full of religious charge in its justice conception because we have a direct divine intervention showing to the bishop what was the right thing to do while the host flew into Herkinbald's mouth.
Best regards to all
Alessandro
The Chapman Brothers Zoe mentioned are a great example of the thin and difficult borderline where (contemporary) art and law meet. Jake and Dinos Chapman have been criticised by many and they already faced different legal procedures.
RispondiEliminaIf some of you ever come in Venice, please visit the new Punta Dogana museum, where a fabulous work of the Chapman brothers sets several thousands of small German soldiers and nazi's in a horrifying scenery.
With my examples of Mondriaan and Grard (in the first lesson) I have touched on the differences between the 'economical' and the 'moral' rights of the artist. Today there is a (Dutch) Mondriaan Foundation, still earning money by every neck tie or shoe with Mondriaan design sold. They don't mind using the design for whatever purpose.
The Grard example on the nother hand is related to the moral aspect. Here, Grard was not amused that his work of art was reproduced (in another form: from sculpture to beer label) for another purpose than he made it for. He had the (moral) right to prohibit this reproduction and he did so.
However, at least according to Belgian law, there are some exceptions to this right of prohibition!
A first exception is purely legal: prescription. According to Belgian law, 70 years after the death of the artist, his heirs can no longer claim any right. Compared to the Goya-Chapman case, Goya's heirs wouldn't be able to do anything against the Chapmans.
In the Chapman case, also the second exception applies, at least to my feeling (and I admit that other 'judges' might judge otherwise): one can always 'cite' another author, criticise, make an allusion or a satire. And this is, for me, here the case: the Chapmans do not just copy, but they make a 'NEW' work of art, with references to another one.
One of my favourites in this context is the Croatian artist Dimitrijevich (google image: braco dimitrijevic triptychos post historicus): he realises 'new' works of art by combining existing works of art in a museum on the one hand, with a natural element (an apple for instance) and a mechanic object (a bicycle for instance) on the other. In this sense the old existing work of art becomes entirely part of a new work of art. Have a look and enjoy it!
I already knew the iconography, its meaning and its purpose.
RispondiEliminaBut I have never had the opportunity to really compare me with an image, coming to fully
understand its meaning. Indeed this is what I understood after
the lecture of Prof MATYN.
It's amazing how much concepts can be expressed,and at the same time contained, in
a single image. Generally observing with an inexperienced eye,many hidden secrets of the image will easily be skipped
,secrets that if included would give a different perspective to
the picture itself.
I must admit that to find the various hidden meanings has been very
exciting.
nevertheless I do not think that today, using an image,it could clarify legal concepts,
due to their general complexity ... let me add
, especially with regard to the Italian law.
We may use the images to confirm and to stress the absolute or
fundamental legal concepts.
However the study of images, from a standpoint of their real
meaning, it remains a study with exciting results and ,especially,
helpful to understand what were the real costumes, thoughts
and beliefs of the past. This is useful, as it regards a juridical circle,
because it allows us to better understand the evolution of the
same rights as well as what led them to achieve these results.
From this point of view I think we can consider the iconography
a true science, as it aims to reach a conclusion through a
survey that follows a logical method.
Finally, I believe we should keep in mind that the thirteenth
century until almost to modernity, the vast majority of people were
illiterate. This makes the art, especially in legal and religious circle
(but obviously also in all other areas of knowledge), a
unique means to spread the Knowledge and the various
beliefs of the past.
In my view, this makes the study conducted by iconography,
even more useful and necessary because it allows us
to supplement the written sources and get to have a
greater overall knowledge of the past ...
at all levels, historical, religious, scientific and even legal.