Justitia (Spitzweg)

Justitia, also known as The Eye of the Law, is an oil on canvas painting by German painter Carl Spitzweg, created c. 1857. it is held in a private collection.

Description
The portrait-format painting shows a statue of Justitia, or Lady Justice, on a base, which also forms the cornerstone of a stair railing. The statue facing the viewer, which is located in the left half and in the upper half of the picture, has the usual attributes of personified justice with the blindfold and the scales, in the left hand, the sword in the right hand and the classic long robe. The light brownish stone from which it appears to be made is illuminated by sunlight coming from the top left. On the building, which lies behind the landing and occupies a large part of the background, can be seen shadows cast by architectural elements. On the far left, is visible the silhouette of part of a column with a capital.

From the upper end of the column's shadow, a line slopes diagonally to the right, above which the wall is in shadow while the lower part is in sunlight. The division into light and shadow areas of the wall runs behind the statue at approximately chest height. At the corner of the building on the right there is a person, standing behind this corner that is only partially visible. Visible are his helmet with feathers, a uniformed upper body, the tip of a sword or stick and the tip of a foot. The man, possibly a soldier, is apparently standing in the shadows on the landing to guard the building.

On the right edge of the painting, there is another railing, the slope of which shows that there is also a staircase leading down on the other side of the building. The background on the right side of the painting shows urban architecture under a greenish lit sky. There is an unlit lantern on the building shown at the level of Lady Justice. Behind Lady Justice's lower legs there is a dark brown display box or bulletin board on the wall of the house, on which there is a written sheet of paper.

The base part of Justitia belongs to a staircase that seems to lead further up on the left and shows three steps in the foreground on the right that are parallel to the lower edge of the picture. From the viewer's perspective, these lead up to the level where the guard stands and from which the notice could be read. Below these steps you can see another landing on the right, to which another staircase apparently leads up from the bottom left. However, this is only indicated by a single step at the bottom. Overgrown masonry below the railing in the lower left corner of the painting also suggests that there is another area in the area below. This lower part of the image shows dark brownish tones, while the landing and steps on the right, which are largely exposed to sunlight, show light, more ocher tones.

The painting can be considered not without some ironical intent, since the sculpture shows some cracks in its foundation, while she also holds broken scales and wears a somewhat disarranged blindfold. The look of the soldier at the viewer also seems suspicious.

Provenance
Spitzweg's Justitia came into the spotlight in 2007 when the Federal Ministry of Finance agreed to return it to the heirs of the former owner Jewish art collector Leo Bendel, who was forced to sell his collection after the Nazi rise to power, and had died at Buchenwald concentration camp, on March 30, 1940.

Two paintings from Bendel art collection, Justitia and The Warlock in the Heinemann Gallery on June 15, 1937. The gallery paid Bendel 16,000 marks for the current painting. Later, the painting was resold for 25,000 marks to the art dealer Maria Almas. In October 1945, it came to the Central Collecting Point in Munich. The painting's provenance was checked back then, but was apparently found to be unproblematic. The painting was handed to the Federal President's Office on August 1, 1961, and was hung in the Villa Hammerschmidt, in Bonn, with no further inspections taking place. In 2006, Blendel heirs shown to German President Horst Köhler the circumstances under which Leo Bendel was forced to sell it. After an inspection, the Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues suggested that the Federal Ministry of Finance should return the picture to them. Initially there was no noticeable public reaction until a magazine reported the case in March 2007. The Federal Ministry of Finance then gave his approval to the return of the painting to Blendel heirs. The painting was later auctioned in May 2020 at the Neumeister Munich auction house for £550,000 euros and was sold to a German private collector.