Study for 'Justice, Peace, and Truth' 1672

Giovanni Battista Gaulli's study, painted with oil, presents a vivid tableau of Justice, Peace, and Truth, laden with symbolic weight. Justice holds her scales, a motif stretching back to ancient Egypt, where balance was paramount for passage into the afterlife. Here, Justice intimately embraces Peace, who bears an olive branch, an emblem of accord since antiquity. This image is a powerful condensation, a visual formula intended to stir profound emotions. Consider the serpent at the feet of these allegorical figures. This ancient symbol of chaos and deception is subdued, crushed beneath the virtues. The serpent, however, is not entirely vanquished; it remains a coiled presence, a latent force, reminding us of the eternal struggle and the cyclical nature of order and disorder, a potent image that resonates in our collective psyche.