A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Medieval Iconography of Justice in a European Periphery: The Case of Sweden, ca. 1250-1550
Authors: Mia Korpiola
Editors: Stefan Huygebaert; Georges Martyn; Vanessa Paumen; Eric Bousmar; Xavier Rousseaux
Publishing place: Cham
Publication year: 2018
Book title : The Art of Law: Artistic Representations and Iconography of Law and Justice in Context, from the Middle Ages to the First World War
Series title: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice
Number in series: 66
Volume: 66
First page : 89
Last page: 110
Number of pages: 22
ISBN: 978-3-319-90786-4
eISBN: 978-3-319-90787-1
ISSN: 1534-6781
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90787-1_5
This chapter investigates medieval Sweden and its iconography of justice. The Swedish lay judges (noblemen, burghers and peasants) were without university education, and especially the commoners had few opportunities of seeing images of justice on artefacts or in secular buildings. Yet, the ecclesiastical imagery in churches was seen and understood by all, thanks to the Church's teaching. Based on surveys of justice-related iconography in medieval Swedish and Finnish (then part of Sweden) churches, the chapter argues that the scope of these motifs was very limited. Images of the Last Judgment and Saint Michael weighing souls predominate, while some churches had murals with Moses receiving the Tables of the Law, Solomon's justice, or truth-or justice-related Biblical verses in Latin. No images of Lady Justice (as one of the cardinal virtues) or other justice-related representations came up. Even only a fraction of the Finnish churches had a Last Judgment or Saint Michael to adorn them. However, these two images together, with images of devils tempting people to sin and perdition, were visualisations that had practical meaning in the Swedish legal culture. The practices of justice and judging were popular and daily reiterated, making each sworn oath a step towards either heaven or hell.