Die Gerechtigkeit

In 1469 the Mercanzia, the Florentine court that policed the city's guilds and settled merchants' disputes, ordered seven paintings of the Virtues for the room where its judges sat. Piero del Pollaiuolo got the job, and this figure of Justice, a sword in one hand and scales in the other, was meant to look down on real trials. Midway through, the court handed one panel to the young Botticelli, which set off loud protests from Piero and his brother Antonio until the whole series was given back to their workshop. The seven Virtues were finished by 1472 and framed together. They stayed above the judges until the 1770s, when the court's property passed on and the panels were moved to the Uffizi.