Paper's abstract

Pierre-François Dayot, Infamous painting: a legal technique
With infamous painting, the judicial power in northern Italy of the Middle Ages succeeded in associating criminal sanctions with an iconographic representation. Even if other techniques testify of this relation between representation and law, infamous painting remains an original technique which allows to push onto the frontstage crimes as well as criminals. The convict thereby found himself represented on the city walls, thus exposed to the reproach of the whole population, dishonoured and excluded. The image, used in a precise setting, then becomes an efficient penalty and the artist, often against his will, a kind of executioner.

Key Words : infamous painting, crime, sanction
t. 40, 1995 : p. 122-131