Attribution
Martin-Guillaume Biennais (b. 1764, d. 1843)

Reverse
Carved in the round.

Comments
This Hand of Justice is a forgery made for political reasons prior to Napoleon's coronation. It is based on a 13th-century (?) Hand of Justice (kept in the Treasury of Saint-Denis) which was used during the coronation ceremony of French kings before the Revolution (it was reproduced in a watercolour by Gaignières (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fr. 20007; see also Montfaucon 1729)). The hand was carved in a narwal tusk and placed at the end of a metalwork staff. Taken away with the rest of the Treasury in 1793, it did not survive. However, Napoleon Ist wanted the regalia to feature at his coronation and thus asked Vivant Denon to commission a replica from a Paris metalworker, Martin-Guillaume Biennais. The model, however, was the Montfaucon engraving which was a reversed image: this explains why the replica is a left hand when the original was a right hand. The metalwork at the base of the hand comprises part of the Medieval so-called 'anneau de saint Denis', two cameos and one intaglio also from Saint-Denis. The Hand of Justice was thereafter considered genuine and was subsequently used at the coronation ceremony of Charles X. The ring of Saint Denis dates from the 1st quarter of the 13th century.

Provenance
Exhibited at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris from 1804 to 1816; deposited at the Garde-meuble; restored by Évrard Bapst in 1825 (Paris, Archives nationales, O 3 1918); assigned to the Ministry of Finance in 1848; deposited at the Musée du Louvre in 1852.

Bibliography
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H. Barbet de Jouy, Notice des antiquités, objets du Moyen Âge, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes composant le musée des Souverains, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1868), no. 26.
J.-J. Marquet de Vasselot, Musée du Louvre. Orfèvrerie, émaillerie et gemmes du Moyen Âge au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1914), no. 17.
W. M. Conway, 'The Abbey of Saint-Denis and its Ancient Treasures', in Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, LXVI (1915), pp. 103-158 (p. 150).
Exhibition of French Art 1200-1900, exhibition catalogue, London, Academy of Arts, 1932, no. 568g, p. 258.
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