A fragment of Themis’s arm. A frozen gesture

Creation

This limestone fragment is a surviving part of a monumental allegorical figure of Themis – the ancient Greek goddess of justice. The sculpture was created for the parapet of the Buchach Town Hall in the mid-18th century by the team of architect Bernard Meretyn and sculptor Johann Georg Pinsel. As the embodiment of impartial justice and the law, she occupied a prominent place in the ideological programme of the magistrate’s building. The goddess’s hand, which once held scales or a sword, served as the main compositional and symbolic focal point, conveying divine justice to the townspeople.

Description

Unlike most of the other fragments of the complex, which have survived as heavily weathered, almost unrecognisable blocks of stone, this fragment is remarkably well-preserved. The surviving part of Themis’s arm displays the dramatic expressiveness of gesture characteristic of Johann Georg Pinsel’s mature style.

The master models the goddess’ forearm and hand with his characteristic graphic, concisely hewn form. Pinsel deliberately avoids softness and anatomical detail: the plasticity of the hand is entirely subordinated to the overall tectonics of movement. The muscles of the forearm are sharply defined, whilst the joints possess a clear, almost Cubist geometry. Thanks to this technique, the gesture remained expressive and easily readable by viewers from a great distance below – from the square in front of the town hall.

The monument’s current condition is visual evidence of its tragic history. The surface of the limestone is criss-crossed by numerous cracks, deep creases and chips, which threatened to cause the figure to lose its form entirely. Today, Themis’ preserved hand is seen as an eloquent example of an enforced “non-finito”. Stripped of her original attributes of authority – the scales or the sword – she has not lost her inner strength. Now this fragment stands not merely as part of a ruined Baroque figure, but as a self-sufficient sculptural manifesto – a symbol of beauty’s vulnerability in the face of the ages and its remarkable ability to resist oblivion