The Kiss of Peace and Justice (1654): Art, History and Details

The Kiss of Peace and Justice (1654) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Laurent de La Hyre (French, 1606–1656).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The figures of Peace (burning the weapons of war) and Justice (holding a sword and scales) embrace in a quiet landscape. The Latin inscription under the antique urn reads “Justice and Peace kissed” (referring to an Old Testament verse, Psalms 85:10). The subject may have had political significance: the painting’s date coincides with the end of the Fronde, a period of civil war in France during which the parlement (courts of appeal) and the nobility sought—unsuccessfully—to limit the power of the monarchy

Object facts

• Title: The Kiss of Peace and Justice
• Date: 1654
• Creator attribution: Laurent de La Hyre (French, 1606–1656)
• Culture: France
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 68.5 x 89 x 6.5 cm (26 15/16 x 35 1/16 x 2 9/16 in.); Unframed: 54.9 x 76.2 cm (21 5/8 x 30 in.)
• Collection: P - French 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1971.102

A detail from the museum

While the figures of Peace and Justice may refer to Psalm 85:10, the peaceful, pastoral landscape is described in Psalm 85:12.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Mireur, Hippolyte. Dictionnaire des V entes d'Art Faites en France et à l'Étranger Pendant les XVIIIme & XIXme Siècles. Paris: Maison D'Éditions d'Œuvres Artistiques, Ch. de Vincenti, 1911.
• Wolcott, Cora Codman. A History of the Codman Collection of Pictures. Brookline, Massachusetts: Twin Pines Farm, 1935.
• Duvaux, Lazare. Livre-journal de Lazare Duvaux. Paris: F. de Nobele (Mayenne, impr. J. Floch), 1965.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.