Cities of Belgium: Grant Allen's Historical GuidesAllen, Grant
History
Cities of Belgium: Grant Allen's Historical Guides
Allen, Grant
Belgium -- Guidebooks
6 and 7. Gerard David. =*The Punishment of the Unjust Judge.= These two
panels are of a type commonly set up in courts of justice as a warning
to evil-doers. They were ordered by the Bruges magistracy. You will see
a similar pair by Dierick Bouts in Brussels. The story, a horrid one, is
taken from Herodotus. Sisamnes was a judge in Persia whom King Cambyses
detected receiving a bribe and ordered to be flayed alive. The king then
stretched his skin on the seat of judgment, and appointed the son of
Sisamnes to sit in his father’s place, that he might remember to avoid a
like fate. The _first picture_ represents, in the background, the
bribery. In the foreground, King Cambyses, in a rich embroidered robe,
demonstrates on his fingers the guilt of the unjust judge. Sisamnes is
seized on his tribunal by a man of the people; courtiers, lawyers, and
burgesses looking on. The expression on his face and the painting of all
the accessories is admirable. In the _second picture_ we have the
flaying of the unjust judge, a horrible scene, powerfully rendered.
Cambyses stands by, holding his sceptre, surrounded by courtiers who
recall the last age of the Burgundian dominion. In the background (as a
subsequent episode) the son of Sisamnes is seen sitting in his father’s
place: behind him hangs the skin of the father. Architecture, landscape,
ropes, and all other accessories of this painful picture should be
carefully noted.
15. J. Prévost. Last Judgment. Below, the dead are rising, half naked,
from the tomb, girt only with their shrouds; the good receiving garments
from angels, and the bad hurried away to a very Flemish and unimpressive
Hell. Above, Christ as Judge holds the sword. Two angels blow out the
words of blessing or malediction. On the spectator’s left, Our Lady
shows the breast that suckled the Redeemer. Behind her are St. Peter
with the key, St. Paul with the sword, St. Bartholomew with the knife,
and other saints. On the right are St. John-Baptist with the lamb, King
David with the harp, Moses, horned (as always), with the tables of the
law, and a confused group of saints. This picture is rather curious than
beautiful. Above it is a later treatment of the same subject by Van
Coornhuuse, interesting for comparison as showing the usual persistence
of types and the conventional grouping of the individual figures.
Compare especially the corresponding personages in the lower left-hand
corners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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