Justice
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (trimmed): 2 15/16 × 1 7/8 in. (7.4 × 4.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.2276
Art Historical Context
Created in 1636 by Abraham Bosse in collaboration with Herman Weyen this delicate etching portrays the allegorical of Justice. Rendered as a goddess holding a sword and scales, the image draws on traditional symbols of fairness and authority The compact size—just under three inches tall—suggests it may have been designed for inclusion in a book or as part of a portable series of moral emblems. Bosse was a leading French printmaker of the seventeenth century whose precise etching technique allowed for clear, reproducible images that reached wide audiences. Etchings like this one played an impo...
About the Artist
Herman Weyen|Abraham Bosse (Flemish|French) · 1600 |1602 –1672 |1676
Flemish, died Paris, 1672|French, Tours 1602/04–1676 Paris