Representing sovereignty in renaissance England
pictorial metaphors and the visibility of law
pp. 79-103
in: Anne Wagner, Richard K. Sherwin (eds), Law, culture and visual studies, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
This chapter investigates some of the multifarious ways used to represent and to communicate what the body of law is and how the law has to be understood. The analysis is based on an interdisciplinary approach, aimed to interpret political concepts and legal practices according to the more recent results of cognitive science. Pictorial metaphors are described as the outcomes of a general mode of thought operating in various spheres of human cognition expressed through pictorial languages. In the background to the recognition theory of depiction and to pragmatic research about contextual factors of evaluation, the cognitive characteristics of pictorial metaphors as well as a sketch of their understanding are given, and their persuasive potential and their role in shaping organizations are hinted at. Examples of pictorial metaphors in the Renaissance England iconography of law are then examined through these analytical tools. In particular, dress of law and allegorical portraits of sovereignty are considered. The purpose of this study is to discover the bulk of symbols and signs used to shape the English Legal Tradition and to justify the inner structure of its proper narrative. The aesthetics of Renaissance Common Law is scrutinized beyond the conventional accounts with the aim to bring to the surface the contending images sustaining antagonistic claims to sovereignty.