![handle is hein.journals/lwcrtq7 and id is 1 raw text is: Law and Critique Vol.VII no.1 [1996]
HE HANGED RUMBOLD ...: THE ICONOLOGY OF
JUDICIAL PARTIALITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES
by
RICHARD W. IRELAND *
I
In the Groeningemuseum in Bruges a remarkable and alarming pair
of paintings is displayed. The pictures which form The Judgment of
Cambyses were commissioned for the Aldermen's room in Bruges City
Hall from one of the most celebrated painters associated with that city,
Gerard David. The left hand panel bears the date 1498. The narrative
which informs the pictures is classical in origin, being based on a passage
in Herodotus, but it may be readily understood as illustrating a theme
which recurs frequently in European medieval art, both visual and
literary. It was a theme which would be of more than simply aesthetic
interest for its intended viewers.
In the left hand panel (fig. 1) a man in a chair is being seized, or held,
by another whose physiognomy and clothing suggest a humble occupation.
The sitting figure wears a red robe and clutches what appears to be a
black cap. Apart from a rather wide-eyed stare he seems to be calm, even
resigned. Indeed everyone who stands in the orderly crowd which
surrounds him seems calm. In the middle of the crowd stands a
splendidly dressed, bearded figure who at first sight seems to be forming
his hands into an interesting shape like an animal's head, as if about to
demonstrate shadow pictures. After a while alternative explanations
seem more probable, that he is enumerating something for another's
benefit perhaps. Animals do appear in the picture however. A noble
* Senior Lecturer in Law, Department of Law, University of Wales,
Aberystwyth. I am grateful to Helen Palmer and A.H.R. Brierley for their
comments in the preparation of this paper and to the Groeningemuseum,
Bruges and the Museum of Ancient Art Brussels, by whose courtesy the David
and Bouts illustrations (respectively) are reproduced, for their assistance. In
rescuing sense from the gibberish of a corrupted disk Christine Davies was, as
ever, magnificent (any remaining gibberish is my own!). In a last-minute
footnote panic Susan Priddey was a real help.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/lwcrtq7&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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