# Black forehead band = blind. Any others? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 9, 2006, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663 "2006-02-09T06:05:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/21 "2018-02-25T10:40:00Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Were there previous or subsequent signs (besides the sunglasses and cane) that achieved widespread use in Britain or any other part of the world? Well, this part of my question I can at least answer now: there is also a [yellow armband with three black dots](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=blind+armband&source=lnms&tbm=isch) that I’ve seen in Europe. I think that awareness and adoption of this symbol is very low, though. I very rarely see blind people wearing it; most of them just use a white or red-and-white cane, usually without sunglasses. A lot of German pedestrian crossings have this symbol emblazoned on [a special signal box](http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-hamburg-germany-blind-signal-button-at-traffic-lights-73864007.html), which means that an audio signal can be activated by pressing a concealed button on the underside of the box. But the general public seems to have no clue what this is for. Practically every day I see sighted people touching the front of the signal box (which has no effect) or pressing the hidden button underneath, mistakenly thinking that it’s necessary to trigger the traffic lights. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/22 "2018-02-25T17:02:21Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > One notes that Fielding was blinded in an accident. Accident damage may well leave significant visible damage that some may wish to cover. In Fielding’s case, that probably didn’t apply. It is now known that he was blinded in a botched eye operation by the surgeon, James Wilkie. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/23 "2018-02-25T21:09:16Z")
All I know is that in the 20th (and21st century) people signal over the phone that they have a headache by using a hoarse voice (because you can’t do ‘headache’ over the phone). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/24 "2018-02-26T17:38:07Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The blindfold signifies that justice is willfully blind: it’s not that she can’t see the differences in social class, connections people have, etc. It’s that she chooses not to take them into account. Or per Langston Hughes: That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are wise: Her bandage hides two festering sores That once perhaps were eyes ---
**Author:** ![Gladys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/13edae/32.png) [@Gladys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gladys)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2019, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/25 "2019-11-27T23:40:36Z")
Given that we know: - portraits of this period often use symbols to say something about their subject - a blind person may have worn a black bandage over their eyes - Sir John Fielding, even after he was blinded, was a prominent magistrate, known for the soundness of his judgment and the fact that he could recognise criminals by their voices alone …I suggest that the band being raised above his eyes for the portrait might symbolise his clear-sightedness in the sense of clarity of discernment - and perhaps even a heightened sense of this - despite his disability. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/26 "2019-11-28T14:52:16Z")
interesting button on UK [pedestrian crossings](https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-ouch-22706881). ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/27 "2019-11-28T21:03:38Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > interesting button on UK [pedestrian crossings](https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-ouch-22706881). In my state all pedestrian crossings are audio-enhanced. Some click all the time, some only when the pedestrian crossing button is pressed. I’ve known this to baffle foreigners – they can’t get their head around the idea that street lights and zebra crossings all make a noise — but it seems very ordinary to those of us who live here (You can, by special request, get the sound turned off if it’s near your home and bothers you at night. But If a sight-handicapped person asks for it to be turned on again, that has priority) ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2019, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/28 "2019-11-28T22:49:57Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > interesting button on UK [pedestrian crossings](https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-ouch-22706881). A great[Australian design](https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/dr-karl-need-to-know/2016/07/the-pedestrian-button/) for the same thing. The central strip vibrates (it’s the middle of the arrow shaft) and is used for visually and hearing impaired pedestrians to know when the crossing lights are on. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/29 "2019-11-29T00:10:10Z")
> [@APB](#): > > The painting the OP is referring to is presumably Nathaniel Hone’s 1762 portrait of [Sir John Fielding](http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=fielding&LinkID=mp01570&rNo=0&role=sit). Sir John’s eyes are not the only things to have changed in his portrait over the last 13 years. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/30 "2019-11-29T03:15:45Z")
Alright, I don’t know why this zombie thread is revived, but I’m a professional artist, professional art nerd, with a degree in art nerdery. It’s not often something on the dope is this far in my wheelhouse. Mostly other people have touched on the answers, but I can expand on some of it. First, art such as this painting is usually predicated on some manner of art historical symbolism, which is more or less well defined and established as a specific vocabulary. Going through my books on art history and symbology helped illuminate blindness and the blind depicted in art ([Signs and Symbols in Art by Mark O’Connell](https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Encyclopedia-Signs-Symbols-Identification/dp/075481548X) yielded the best results, tho Hidden Symbols in Art by Sarah Carr-Gomm and a few other books had some insights). As mentioned, it’s well established that the blind or blindness is art is usually depicted by a blindfold. This can indicated either willful blindness or covering of injury or unsightly cataract eyes or empty sockets (just look how [Pieter Bruegel portrayed the blind](https://cdn2.oceansbridge.com/2017/08/16140413/The-Parable-of-the-Blind-Leading-the-Blind-detail-1568-Pieter-The-Elder-Bruegel-oil-painting-1.jpg)). Most “blindness” portrayed in classical art falls under “willful” or moral blindness: [The Rota Fortunae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rota_Fortunae) often depicts FATE as being morally and spiritually blind, as fate favors none over any other. Blind Justice is another well known trope. In masonic/freemason symbolism, the blindfolded man (depicted in my book with literally a black band around his eyes) [symbolizes spiritual blindness](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/44/50/68/445068ebbe6d511a19ebecb7f0d3a520.jpg)–removing the blindfold (as initiates will eventually do) indicates spiritual illumination. Bringing it back to the portrait series of Sir John Fielding, Hone invoked the classical trope of “moral blindness” and the depiction of the removal of the blindfold to represent a sense of enlightenment (relating to Fielding’s renown moral blindness regarding the law, in spite of his literal blindness. He was said to know the voice of criminals and able to pick them out based on that alone). Hone painted a series of these paintings, starting with [this miniature reproduction with Fielding and his family.](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Georgina_Cole4/publication/317901738/figure/fig11/AS:668386988154881@1536367284062/Nathaniel-Hone-John-Fielding-Elizabeth-Whittingham-and-Mary-Ann-Whittingham-miniature.jpg) > [@](#): > > Painted in 1757, 1762, and 1773 in miniature and oil on canvas, they represent Fielding’s blindness > as an impairment rather than an impediment, emphasizing his family life, his charity, and > his public virtue (Figures 1–3). While acknowledging the physical nature of blindness they > repeatedly invoke, as Fielding did himself, the figuration of blindfold justice. In this com- > bination of naturalistic description and artistic trope, the portraits construct a new pictor- > ial vocabulary that allows the sighted viewer to imagine the meanings of blindness as a > lived experience of sensory deprivation that confers special virtues of impartiality and > reasoning. > > The Enlightenment, with its metaphors of illumination and clarity, was deeply invested > in the mechanics and performance of sight. > > In a variety of social and scientific contexts, > the privileging of observation elevated seeing to the “noblest”sense. > > Able to instantly communicate distance, scale, order and beauty, the sense of sight was a key faculty and > metaphor in the self-conscious construction of Enlightenment thinking. According to [Georgina Cole](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317901738_Painting_for_the_blind_Nathaniel_Hone's_portraits_of_Sir_John_Fielding#pf5), Hone: > [@](#): > > establish[ed] a public image for the magistrate and a visual language for representing his blindness. Fielding is represented in 1757 as a family man, in 1762 as a sociable member of the Republic of Letters, and finally in 1773 as the embodiment of Justice. The movement across the portraits from empiricism to allegory not only conveys his increasing social status and celebrity, but also the mingling of philosophical and poetic ideas about blindness in Enlightenment thinking. Finally, regarding the literal painting the OP is commenting on, it is said [that](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02215/Sir-John-Fielding): > [@](#): > > The black band on his forehead was there to let others know that he was blind; it is said that Fielding knew more than three thousand London thieves by their voices. So this is not some established direct symbolism–a black headband meaning you are blind, but rather a lifted blindfold–which is a VERY well established art-historical symbol representing blindness–shown to show that this blind man’s blindness is not an impediment but rather a source of enlightened, even-handed enlightenment. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/31 "2019-11-29T03:29:19Z")
For further reading, here’s[The Iconography of Blindness: How Artists have Portrayed the Blind.](https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-iconography-of-blindness-how-artists-have-portrayed-the-blind) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/32 "2019-11-29T04:05:01Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The blindfold signifies that justice is willfully blind: it’s not that she can’t see the differences in social class, connections people have, etc. It’s that she chooses not to take them into account. The statue of Justice on the Irish Law Courts from the British period isn’t blindfolded. She faces towards the Castle (seat of the Viceroy), rather than looking out over Dublin. All of which led to this little ditty: \*There She stands, Above her station, With her face to the Crown, And her arse to the Nation. \* ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/33 "2019-11-29T14:09:56Z")
I’m not an expert on this aspect, but over the years I recall seeing multiple old paintings of blind people and the give-away was that they had a bandage/band around the head covering the eyes to indicate the affliction - even poor people and especially beggars. I don’t recall any colour being significant. I would expect that the guesses above are correct - that he would (sometimes?) wear this around his eyes, but for a portrait (as opposed to an allegory or story painting) the full face was preferable so it was simply pushed up, to indicate that the problem existed while not blocking out a significant part of the face in the portrait. Perhaps the bandage is analogous to the dark glasses often worn by blind people today - again, a superfluous but symbolic attribute. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/34 "2019-11-29T14:43:06Z")
Thanks so much, **dontbesojumpy** , for your edifying post! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2019, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/35 "2019-11-29T20:12:51Z")
Yes, that was very interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Colossus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.colossus/32/9423_2.png) [@Dr.Colossus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Colossus)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2019, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663/36 "2019-11-30T02:10:50Z")
I absolutely _mangled_ that last sentence and missed the edit window because it was Thanksgiving…the GF wanted more pie…the puppy was being unruly…there was alcohol running afoul…and other excuses. I’d like to take another swing at it– > [@](#): > > The black band on his forehead was there to let others know that he was blind; it is said that Fielding knew more than three thousand London thieves by their voices. So this is not some established direct symbolism–a black headband meaning you are blind–but rather a \*lifted \*_blindfold_, which is a VERY well established art-historical symbol representing blindness. It is portrayed to distinguish that \*this \*man’s blindness is not an \*impediment \*but rather a source of enlightened, even-handed _judgement_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-forehead-band-blind-any-others/343663.md?page=1)