Crime and Punishment in Art: Motifs and Examples

Joanna Kamień, Kamil Zeidler117-143

Abstract: Crime and Punishment in Art: Motifs and Examples

The discussion in this article lies within the framework of the aesthetics of law, a trend in the philosophy of law that deals with the relations between law and beauty. The analyses presented belong primarily to an external approach to the aesthetics of law, inasmuch as they concern selected works of art that depict crimes described in the Bible in the Book of Genesis (original sin and Cain’s murder of Abel) and in the Gospel of St John (the episode concerning Jesus and the woman taken in adultery).

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