United States Supreme Court Building - Sculptural Program

Sculptural Program

Cass Gilbert's design for the building and its environs included an ambitious Beaux-Arts styled sculptural program that included a large number and variety of both real and allegorical figures.

• Supreme Court Flagpole Bases, and bronze doors in the east and west façades by John Donnelly.
• East pediment: Justice, the Guardian of Liberty by Hermon Atkins MacNeil
• West pediment: Equal Justice Under the Law by Robert Ingersoll Aitken. This work includes a portrait of Cass Gilbert, third from the left in the pediment. It also contains a self-portrait of Robert Ingersoll Aitken third from the right.
• Seated figures: The Authority of Law (south side) and The Contemplation of Justice (north side) by James Earle Fraser
• Great Hall: Busts of each of the Chief Justices of the United States in alcoves on either side of the Hall. These marble works are periodically appropriated by the Congress. The most recent addition was Chief Justice Rehnquist's bust in December 2009 to the far end of the north side of the Hall, just to the left of the Courtroom doors.
• Courtroom friezes: The South Wall Frieze includes figures of lawgivers from the ancient world and includes Menes, Hammurabi, Moses, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Confucius, and Augustus. The North Wall Frieze shows lawgivers from the Middle Ages on and includes representations of Justinian, Muhammad, Charlemagne, John of England, Louis IX of France, Hugo Grotius, Sir William Blackstone, John Marshall, and Napoleon. The Moses frieze depicts him holding the Ten Commandments, although only commandments six through ten, usually considered the more secular commands, are visible. Further, Moses' beard obscures some of the words so that instead of reading "Thou Shalt Not Steal", it says "Steal", and similarly appears to command viewers to kill and commit adultery. In 1997, the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked for the image of Muhammad to be removed from the marble frieze of the façade. While appreciating the fact that Muhammad was included in the court's pantheon of 18 prominent lawgivers of history, CAIR noted that Islam discourages depictions of Muhammad in any artistic representation. CAIR also objected that the prophet was shown with a sword, reinforcing long-held stereotypes of Muslims as intolerant conquerors. Chief Justice William Rehnquist rejected the request to sandblast Muhammad, saying the artwork "was intended only to recognize him, among many other lawgivers, as an important figure in the history of law; it is not intended as a form of idol worship". The court later added a footnote to tourist materials, calling it a "a well-intentioned attempt by the sculptor to honor Muhammad".

• "Contemplation of Justice"

• "Authority of Law"

• Flagpole base