Focus on this artwork and explain the abstract.
The Good and the Bad Judge is a c. 15th-century fresco panel decorating the audience chamber of the old town hall of the municipality of Reguengos de Monsaraz, a medieval town situated in the south of Portugal, near the border with Spain. The distinctiveness of its iconography makes it a unique and rare artwork in the context of European Renaissance painting.
It was inadvertently discovered during renovation work in 1958, having been concealed behind a wall.  Because little historical documentation regarding the work exists, there has been speculation about its intended iconographic meaning; the most widely accepted theory is that it is an allegory of divine and earthly justice. Though its authorship remains unknown, it has been attributed to the "Master of Monsaraz-Beja", who was active in the region between the late 15th and the early 16th century, and to whom are also attributed the frescoes in the Hermitage of Saint Andrew (Ermida de Santo André), in Beja.The important art historian Túlio Espanca called this fresco an "extraordinary masterpiece", "unique in its profane theme" in the country. Some critics have drawn parallels between The Good and the Bad Judge, and Ambrogio Lorenzetti's The Allegory of Good and Bad Government (1338–9) in Siena's Palazzo Pubblico, and also Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel frescoes, namely the figures of Justice and Injustice (c. 1305), and Hans Holbein's famous Danse Macabre woodcuts (1526).Recent insights link the painting to Diogo Lopes Rebelo's treatise De Republica Gubernanda per Regem (1496), underlying ethical and moral principles in government, dedicated to King Manuel I.
Beja The Allegory of Good and Bad Government Hans Holbein King Manuel I Túlio Espanca Ambrogio Lorenzetti Hermitage Siena fresco iconographic Scrovegni Chapel Danse Macabre Portugal Giotto art historian iconography Reguengos de Monsaraz Monsaraz Palazzo Pubblico Master of Monsaraz-Beja