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''The Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald'' was a set of four large panels painted by the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden that decorated one wall of a court-room in the Town Hall of Brussels. They represented the ''Justice of Trajan'', a Roman emperor, and ''The Justice of Herkinbald'', a legendary Duke of Brabant. The panels were intended as a reminder to judges to dispense impartial justice and were admired by generations of visitors, including Albrecht Dürer.〔Panofsky, p.253〕 They were destroyed when the city was bombarded by the French in 1695 and are now known only from descriptions and from a tapestry copy in the Historical Museum of Bern.〔Campbell (2004), p. 8〕〔Stechow, p. 9〕 The work is thought to have preoccupied van der Weyden for several years, and is believed to have been, in conception and execution, on a scale and breath and skill to equal Jan van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece. The panels were recorded and described in a number of sourced until the 17th century; espicially detailed are the inscriptions on the frames, which are likely the same as those contained on the edges of the tapestry.〔Campbell (2004), 119〕 ==Description== Each panel was about eleven feet in height and together they spanned a distance of about thirty five feet. The theme of the panels was justice safeguarded by divine intervention.〔Rothstein (2008)〕 The legends of Trajan and Herkinbald appear to occur together for the first time in 1308 in the ''Alphabetum Narrationum'' (''Alphabet of Tales''), a collection of over 800 tales attributed to Arnold of Liége (previously to Etienne de Besançon) arranged by themes and intended to be used as a basis for homilies. The theme ''Iustitia'' (''Justic''e) included just these two legends, although the legend of Trajan is given in a slightly different version from that depicted in the paintings and tapestry.〔Campbell & Van der Stock (2009) p. 241〕 The first panel showed a widow begging justice from Trajan for the murder of her son and Trajan ordering the execution of the soldier accused by the woman (in the tale in the ''Alphabetum Narrationum'', Trajan offered the widow his son as a replacement for her murdered son). The second panel depicted the story in the Golden Legend of Pope Gregory I's miraculous resurrection and conversion of Trajan, thus releasing him from Purgatory. Gregory is shown holding Trajan's exhumed skull, in which the tongue has been miraculously preserved and thus able to utter the death sentence, demonstrating the justness of that sentence. Van der Weyden is known to have portrayed himself as a bystander in this scene. The third panel depicted Herkinbald on his death bed slitting the throat of his nephew, who had committed a rape. The fourth panel showed Herkinbald miraculously receiving the Host, despite refusing to confess the slaying of his nephew as a sinful act.〔〔Campbell & Van der Stock (2009) p. 264-6〕 Both Nicholas of Cusa (in 1453) and Dubuisson-Aubenay (in the 1620s) mentioned that the work contained a self-portrait, generally though to be faithfully reproduced in the 'Herkinbald slaying his nephew' passage.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Justice of Trajan and Herkinbald」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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