the Adoration of the Lamb
The Adoration of the Lamb, the van Eyck altarpiece from St. Bavon Cathedral in Ghent, is a central symbolic object in Jean-Baptiste Clamence's narrative. One of its panels, known as The Just Judges, was stolen in 1934 and never recovered. Clamence possesses the original panel, which he keeps in a cupboard in his bare Amsterdam room, a space he describes as clean and polished like a coffin. The painting's presence in his private domain is the culmination of a series of events that began at Mexico City, the bar where Clamence holds court. A frequenter of the bar, a thief specializing in the art trade, sold the panel to the ape-like proprietor for a bottle of gin during a drunken evening. Clamence first advised the proprietor to hang the painting in a place of honor at Mexico City, where for a long time, while the world searched for it, the devout judges sat enthroned above the drunks and pimps. Later, at Clamence's request, the proprietor put the panel in Clamence's custody, balking at first but yielding after Clamence explained the matter. The empty rectangle on the back wall of Mexico City, above the proprietor's head, marks where the painting once hung, a void that Clamence points out to his listener.
The Separation of Justice and Innocence
Clamence offers a series of reasons for not returning the panel, each revealing a layer of his philosophy. He argues that the proprietor deserves it as much as the Archbishop of Ghent, and that since no one can distinguish the copy from the original, no one is wronged by his misconduct. More significantly, he states that by keeping the true judges hidden while the world admires a false copy, he dominates. The panel's theft and concealment become an instrument of an unknown justice that ought not to be thwarted. The ultimate consequence of this arrangement is that justice is definitively separated from innocence: innocence remains on the cross, while justice is locked in the cupboard. This separation clears the way for Clamence to practice his profession of judge-penitent according to his convictions. The painting thus becomes a physical emblem of his core belief that innocence is unattainable and that judgment is the only remaining human activity.
The Symbol of the Judges
The panel depicts judges on horseback coming to adore the sacred animal, the Lamb. Clamence, who has accepted duplicity and settled into it, finds in these judges his sole company. He refers to them as "my judges" and asks his visitor to lock them up in the cupboard. The painting's presence in his room allows him to feel that he dominates, for he alone knows the true judges while the world is presented with a copy. The theft of the panel, which he did not commit but now harbors, also gives him a chance of being sent to prison, an attractive idea that would allow him to be saved. He imagines being decapitated, his still warm head held up above the gathered crowd so that they could recognize themselves in it and he could again dominate as an exemplar. The painting is thus not merely a stolen object but a key component of Clamence's self-conception as a false prophet and a judge who sits enthroned among his bad angels at the summit of the Dutch heaven, watching the multitude of the Last Judgment ascend toward him.
The Theft as a Provocation
Clamence's harboring of The Just Judges is also a deliberate provocation. He shows the painting to whoever wants to see it, arranging everything to make himself an accomplice. He hopes that his interlocutor will be a policeman who will arrest him for the theft, which falls within the provisions of the law. This arrest would be a good beginning, perhaps leading to his decapitation and salvation. The painting thus serves as a trap, a means of forcing a judgment upon himself that he cannot otherwise obtain. It is the final piece in his construction of a closed little universe of which he is the king, the pope, and the judge. The theft of the panel, an event that occurred years before Clamence's arrival in Amsterdam, becomes in his hands a tool for enacting his personal drama of guilt, judgment, and the desire for a definitive end.
