Spotprent op de openbare executie van de Amsterdamse woekeraar en bedrieger Aron Abrams 1737 - 1739

This print, created by Monogrammist RDZ, depicts the public execution of Aron Abrams, an Amsterdam usurer and fraudster. The scene is rife with symbolism reflecting the social and cultural anxieties of the time. Justice, a female figure, presides from above. She embodies the era's rigid moral code, and the expectation that societal roles and norms, especially those of commerce and finance, should be upheld. Her presence suggests that divine law supports the earthly punishment being meted out. Yet, we must also ask, who gets to dispense Justice, and for whose benefit? The print offers a glimpse into the era's views on wealth, morality, and social order, and it reflects a society grappling with the consequences of unchecked greed and deception. But it also exposes something about the fraught relationships between justice, spectacle, and the darker impulses of public sentiment.