Law, Code, and Governance in Prophetic Painting: Notes on the Emergence of Early, High, and Late Modern Forms of Life and Governance

Abstract

This contribution aims to demonstrate how forms of governance are inextricably intertwined with the forms of life that give rise to them and how such forms of life/governance tend to emerge, historically, in the sensory sphere – on canvas in particular – before they do so symbolically, or conceptually, in the spoken or written word. In other words, emerging forms of life/governance leave traces first in ‘prophetic’ painting before they do so in tracts, books, texts, film scripts, installation art, and so on. This is demonstrated with regard to three historical periods that, each, saw the birth of a particular form of life/governance, that is, early modernity (roughly from 1470 to 1520), high modernity (1750–1800), and late modernity (1940–1990). This contribution includes discussions of ‘prophetic paintings’ by early modern painters such as Jean Fouquet, Gerard David, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Antonello da Messina, and Quentin Metsys; high modern painters such as William Hogarth, Joseph Wright of Derby, and Henry Fuseli; and, finally, late modern painters such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.