The Justice of the Emperor Otto

Two panels survive of a courtroom commission meant to steel magistrates to judge truly. A count, falsely accused by the empress after he spurned her, is beheaded by order of Otto III - at left his widow receives the head - while at right she proves his innocence by ordeal, gripping a red-hot iron bar unharmed before the throne as the lying empress burns at the stake in the distance. Bouts, who died with the cycle unfinished, lines up tall, grave, exquisitely dressed figures against cool architecture. Such 'justice scenes' hung in town halls as warnings against the very miscarriage they depict.