James Earle Fraser’s Contemplation of Justice and Authority of Law Sculptures | BRIdge From The Past
What do the sculptures outside of the Supreme Court building tell us about the Founding principles of justice and the rule of law? In this episode of BRIdge from the Past, Mary examines the front steps of the Supreme Court and James Earle Fraser’s accompanying sculptures. The sculptures followed the opening of the Supreme Court building in 1935 and aimed to be more than just purely decorative. What were Fraser’s goals when designing these sculptures? How did he accomplish these through the symbolism and detail of each?
0:00 Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Bridge from the Past. I’m your host Mary and this series is all about using primary source images as a starting point to think about important topics in American history and government. Today we’re looking at two sculptures that sit out front of the US Supreme Court building in Washington DC. What do these sculptures reveal about
0:21 the founding principles of justice and the rule of law? Let’s jump in and see. Once again, we’re thinking about how two statues outside the US Supreme Court building in Washington DC. Can tell us about founding principles of justice and the rule of law. These sculptures are entitled The Contemplation of justice,
0:44 which is over here on the left, and The Authority of Law. And both of these sculptures were done by the artist James Earl Fraser. Now whenever you see a primary source image, it’s important to just make some observations. So if you’re using the handout that goes with this video, go ahead and pause here and make some observations of your own. Some things that immediately jump out to me are that this building looks fancy.
1:08 If I didn’t know that it was the US Supreme Court, which of course I do, because I told you, and it’s up here in my source line, I would still think that this building is clearly a place where important things happen. It looks like a temple. It’s white, it looks like marble. There are steps leading up to a fancy door. It looks like a golden door.
1:28 It’s actually bronze, but it’s still pretty fancy. You have these wonderful columns and the freeze on top, this triangular piece so it looks like a Greek temple. And these two statues are focal point here. They’re kind of hard to see, but they are clearly in a prominent place. They’re on pedestals of their own and they’re right outside the main
1:50 entrance of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land in the United States. Let’s zoom in a little bit closer on the statues themselves. So once again, you have the Contemplation of Justice on the left and the Authority of Law on the right. Both of these statues are on 50 ton marble columns so that you get a sense of the scale.
2:10 This is a big building, these are large statues and they’re meant to make an impression. So we’ll start with the statue on the left. I noticed that she looks like she’s in some sort of classical garb. And the man on the right, same thing. This is something we’ve seen before in monumental architecture and symbols. Whether you’re talking about the Statue of Liberty or the Freedom Statue on top
2:33 of the US Capitol dome, this idea of antiquity and virtues and principles from this idea of Greek and Roman virtues is really important. So on the left we have The Contemplation of Justice and she’s in classical garb. And I can see there’s some sort of book propping her up on the left. And this is actually a book of law.
2:55 So the whole idea is that law is propping up justice. There is no justice without law. Is this really interesting symbolism on the other side, she has a figure in her hand and it’s a little hard to see, but the figure is blindfolded. And this is a representation, again, of justice going back to the Greek goddess of wisdom.
3:16 And the Roman virtue of justice is blindfolded, it’s impartial. So it doesn’t matter what you look like, who you are, where you’re from. The law is supposed to apply to you equally justice, blind, just as impartial. And again, this idea of law and justice going hand in hand. We move over to the right. We have a male figure, and he looks pretty buff, right?
3:40 So he’s strong, he’s muscular. You can see his chest is bare. Here he has a sword, which is interesting because there’s nothing like that in the justice sculpture. But he has a sword, it isn’t a sheath. So it’s almost like I have the sword, I could use it if I need to. But he’s not actually using it. It’s just there behind he’s holding a tablet of law.
4:04 And it’s pretty faint because this is kind of taken from far away. But on the tablet is the inscription, is the Latin word for law. So again, you have this relationship between law and authority and power in these two statues sitting right out front of the Supreme Court building. So here we have the main entrance to the Supreme Court building once again.
4:27 So again, this idea of harmony, of symmetry, of balance, you have justice and you have law on either side of the court, so they’re equally important. They add to this beautiful sense of balance, of order, of symmetry. The building looks so dignified. And again, that’s the whole point. Co equal with the executive and the legislative branch.
4:50 And it has a building befitting its station. And what I love about this building, I’m going to zoom in here for you guys. Again, it’s a little hard to see, but right up here over the entrance, is equal justice under law. So you have this idea of equality, but also the rule of law and justice being at the very foundation
5:12 of the Supreme Court, again, going back to the Constitution and just how important these principles are to our government. Are they always perfectly applied? Absolutely not. But they’re there, they’re in writing, and that’s what we are always aspiring to. We started by asking what James Earl Fraser’s sculptures could tell
5:32 us about founding principles of justice and the rule of law. We learned about the symbolism in the sculptures and in the main entrance to the Supreme Court building itself. But as always, there’s so much more to this story. So now I’m going to turn it over to you. What questions do you have? What do you want to talk about next. If you learned something, be sure to like this video and subscribe to our channel.
5:55 If you’re using your handout, write down what you learned and questions you have that are still unanswered because questions, questions, questions. That’s what we’re all about here at the Bill of Rights Institute. If you subscribe to our channel, you’ll be the first to know about contests, other videos, and resources to help you through the school year. I’ll be back soon with another primary source image to help us think about important topics in US.
6:17 History and civics. Until next time, everybody. Whenever you see a picture, always ask questions. Take care. Wow. I didn’t know history was so relevant. Kind of makes you think. Think what? That you definitely have to subscribe to the Bill of Rights Institute’s YouTube channel. They have so many videos on American history, government and civics, from primary source.
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