Revenge and Poetic Justice in Classical France

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Parisian judges of the court of law sat beneath a large painting of the Crucifixion, as a way of symbolizing, for the benefit of the criminals, both suffering and redemption. Human crimes had to be paid for in pain, as the example of Christ illustrated. In 1804, Nicolas Frochot, Governor of Paris, ordered that this be replaced by a painting representing Themis and Nemesis (Justice and Revenge) pursuing crime. This is not simply a pagan reference taking over the Christian model; it is also another understanding of crime and punishment. Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, a well-known painter and a regular visitor to the Governor, was asked to execute such a painting. It took him four years, but when he first presented it in the 1808 Exhibition, it was a huge success: Napoléon himself gave him the légion d’honneur. And when it was at last hung on the wall of the court of law, people are said to have fainted from fear.