Justice
Piero del Pollaiuolo·1470
Historical Context
Piero del Pollaiuolo's Justice, painted around 1470 for the Tribunale di Mercanzia in Florence, is one of six surviving panels from a program depicting the theological and cardinal virtues for the merchants' court. The Tribunale di Mercanzia was Florence's commercial court, and the decoration of its meeting hall with personifications of Justice and other virtues expressed the civic ideology that commercial prosperity required moral foundations. Piero and his brother Antonio ran the most important workshop in Florence in the 1460s-1470s, their collaboration combining Antonio's exceptional gifts for anatomy and movement with Piero's more decorative sensibility.
Technical Analysis
Piero renders the allegorical figure with the precise draftsmanship of the Pollaiuolo workshop, using rich color and careful attention to the attributes of Justice within the ornate throne setting.
