Blind Dice
"We are used to seeing Justice figured as a strong woman, bearing a sword, sometimes crowned with sprigs of a plant – laurel or grain stalks – blindfolded perhaps, and surely bearing scales. Most of us, I would bet, assume that the scales merely reproduce the message of the blindfold: that justice is impartial, not a respecter of persons, which means it is blind to the social status of the people before it. The blindfold is a late addition to the iconography of Justice. It dates from the early sixteenth century, whereas scales been associated with Egyptian Maat, Greek Dice , and Roman Lady Aequitas for a couple of millennia longer than that. Lucas Cranach der Ältere Gerechtigkeit-1537 The sacles overflow with productive meanings – for starters, are they properly represented in Justice’s hand as even or tipped? – but the blindfold quickly degenerates in to absurdity if we think on it too closely. Do you want to blindfold someone with a sword? It may...