Abstract
This chapter suggests that it is possible to see the emergence of changes in values and punishment practices—even the underlying philosophies—in the iconography of certain Last Judgment scenes commissioned and created in north-central Italy, 1300–1400. Increasingly horrifying images of hell featuring actual legal punishments might indicate an increasingly punitive legal system. However, analysis suggests that a decline in the use of physical punishments in the secular courts in this region seems to occur around the same time as an increase in detailed representations of such punishments in the Last Judgment images. The chapter explores the possibility that underlying this change in artistic representation is a philosophy of law in a process of transition; from retributive theories, to a more ‘utilitarian’ theory of punishment. Such a theory may suggest that, for the societies commissioning and viewing them, the powerful visual effect of increasingly horrifying depictions of the punishment of sinners in the afterlife may have played an active role in that society, a ‘visual trick’, helping to address a disconnect between contemporary criminal justice practice and criminal justice rhetoric.
Published Version
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