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Changes in Late-Medieval Artistic Representations of Hell in the Last Judgment in North-Central Italy, ca. 1300–1400: A Visual Trick?

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The Art of Law

Part of the book series: Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice ((IUSGENT,volume 66))

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Abstract

This chapter suggests that it is possible to see the emergence of changes in values and punishment practices—even the underlying philosophies—in the iconography of certain Last Judgment scenes commissioned and created in north-central Italy, 1300–1400. Increasingly horrifying images of hell featuring actual legal punishments might indicate an increasingly punitive legal system. However, analysis suggests that a decline in the use of physical punishments in the secular courts in this region seems to occur around the same time as an increase in detailed representations of such punishments in the Last Judgment images. The chapter explores the possibility that underlying this change in artistic representation is a philosophy of law in a process of transition; from retributive theories, to a more ‘utilitarian’ theory of punishment. Such a theory may suggest that, for the societies commissioning and viewing them, the powerful visual effect of increasingly horrifying depictions of the punishment of sinners in the afterlife may have played an active role in that society, a ‘visual trick’, helping to address a disconnect between contemporary criminal justice practice and criminal justice rhetoric.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, Faculty of Business and Law, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK

    Clare Sandford-Couch

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  1. Clare Sandford-Couch
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Correspondence to Clare Sandford-Couch .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Art, Ghent Legal History Institute, FWO (Research Foundation Flanders), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Stefan Huygebaert

  2. Ghent Legal History Institute, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Georges Martyn

  3. Flemish research centre for the arts of the Burgundian Netherlands, Musea Brugge, Bruges, Belgium

    Vanessa Paumen

  4. Centre de recherches en histoire du droit et des institutions, Université Saint-Louis, Brussels, Belgium

    Eric Bousmar

  5. Centre d’histoire du droit et de la justice, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Xavier Rousseaux

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Sandford-Couch, C. (2018). Changes in Late-Medieval Artistic Representations of Hell in the Last Judgment in North-Central Italy, ca. 1300–1400: A Visual Trick?. In: Huygebaert, S., Martyn, G., Paumen, V., Bousmar, E., Rousseaux, X. (eds) The Art of Law. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 66. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90787-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90787-1_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90786-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90787-1

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