Justice

In Renaissance Florence the trade guilds ran much of civic life, and they liked to picture the virtues they claimed to uphold. This panel of Justice was painted around 1490 for the Arte dei Vinattieri, the wine merchants' guild. You can read that in the two coats of arms in the lower corners, set beside the Florentine lily and the cross of the people, the marks of a work made for a public body. Justice sits on a bank of clouds, one foot on the globe, a sword in one hand and the scales in the other. For a time the panel hung under a bigger name. In 1890 it was given to Antonio del Pollaiuolo, whose Virtues for the city's merchant court hang in this same museum, before scholars returned it to Biagio d'Antonio. The heavy, sculpted drapery over her knees is what first drew that comparison.