Justice

Description The bust-length personification of Justice appears as a golden figure cloaked in green and white enamel garments against a blue enamel background. The engraved outline of the face is highlighted with red enamel as is the lettering. This technique and combination of colors is characteristic of enamels made in the vicinity of Cologne, Germany, in the second half of the 12th century. Justice and its mate, Charity (Walters 44.100), plausibly were part of a series illustrating virtues adorning a book cover, reliquary shrine or portable altar.

Exhibitions

• Arts of the Middle Ages. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston. 1940.

Provenance A. Tollin, Paris, by purchase; Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, May 20, 1897, no. ???; Jacques Seligmann, Paris, by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1922, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions In red enamel on gold gilded scroll above Justice's head: IUSTICIA; [Translation] Justice. Stamped with maker's mark on reverse.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1922