Gerichtsszene_ Zwei Richter und ein Schreiber an einem Tisch, umgeben von sechs stehenden Personen, den Streitenden und einem Gerichtsdiener 

Friedrich Rottmann created this ink drawing of a court scene in Germany around the turn of the 19th century. In it, Rottmann critiques the social structures of his time, laying bare tensions between the letter of the law and its spirit. The artist uses caricature to visually differentiate the classes. The corpulent judges are bewigged and overdressed; one sits with a raised finger, as if lecturing, while the other ignores the scene, poring over documents. Meanwhile, the common folk are caricatured as gap-toothed, thin, and coarsely dressed. They argue amongst themselves, appealing to the judges to resolve their conflict. Rottmann leaves us with a sense of the German legal system as a bureaucratic and alienating institution. Court records from the period can give us a sense of the kinds of cases being heard at the time, adding another layer of understanding to Rottmann’s satire. In the end, artworks like this demonstrate how artistic interpretation is always contingent on social and institutional context.