At all times, painters have been attracted to subjects associated with extreme situations and vivid emotional disturbances, capable of emphasizing both the highest and lowest manifestations of human nature. The moment of execution, that is, murder legalized by the state, gives the artist the opportunity to demonstrate his own vision of the participants in the action: the victim, the executioner, the accusers, the crowd.
The works depicting the moment of execution can be purely conditionally divided into several groups: executions of Christian martyrs, heretics, historical figures and royals, rebels and rioters, pirates, military opponents.
Those who suffered for their faith. Execution art.
Crucifixion is a type of execution that is associated primarily with Jesus Christ, and therefore deserves a separate discussion. The theme of persecution of the early followers of Christianity is also popular in fine art and reflects the level of morals of that era. The first Christians were tortured, crucified, beheaded with swords, wheeled, stoned – these martyrdoms were reflected in artistic creativity.
Some works are devoted to such a barbaric custom as “tradition to the beasts”: the condemned were thrown into an arena with lions or into a ditch with bears.
The Inquisition: Centuries of Fear
The Holy Inquisition is a combination of words that is read literally backwards and is associated with centuries of total surveillance, ruthless persecution of dissent, suppression of freedom of speech, and brutal torture.
Auto-da-fe – “acts of faith” – were furnished magnificently and solemnly, work on the construction of a theater for public executions was carried out from dawn to sunset. Among those killed in the fire by the Inquisition is the Maid of Orleans, accused of heresy and idolatry.
Executions of royalty
In 16th-century England, laying claim to the royal throne was not a good idea for a woman. With a short interval in this century, the spouses of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, nicknamed “Queen for 9 Days” Jane Gray and the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart were executed. Paul Delaroche’s painting “The Execution of Lady Jane Gray” depicts the last minutes of a young woman’s life, when she staggered, losing her mental strength. The image of clean straw next to the chopping block and the white dress of the victim are techniques used by the artist to make the observer guess what will happen next.
Many painters addressed the tragic fate of Mary Stuart, and Stefan Zweig, in his novelized biography, vividly and emotionally conveyed the atmosphere of the queen’s farewell to life. Describing the clothes that the woman sentenced to death chose very carefully, the writer used archival documents, engravings and paintings: after the sentence was carried out, the velvet dress, silk cloak and other items of clothing were burned so that Stewart’s supporters would not make them relics.
Death of historical figures
Brigadier General José Maria Torrijos fought for Spanish independence and opposed the absolutist monarchies that then ruled much of Europe. With the support of Britain, where he lived in exile, he organized a revolt and landed on the Spanish coast in 1831. Here the general and 48 associates fell into a trap: they were arrested and imprisoned in the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Order. The Spaniard Antonio Gisbert captured the moment of the execution of anti-absolutists, to which they were sentenced without trial.
Spain went through a lot in the 19th century, oscillating between republican governments and monarchical restorations. In 1888, when Gisbert painted the picture, the country was under the rule of King Alfonso XII, and Spanish intellectuals yearned for a more liberal society. The country’s history in the next century was equally turbulent, marked by a bloody civil war in the 1930s. The painter, who died in 1901, did not live to see these events, but in his work he seemed to have foreseen them.
Russian revolt, “senseless and merciless…”
The canvas by Vasily Surikov does not show the moment of direct reprisal against the archers who angered Tsar Peter. The author deliberately did not depict a single executed person, trying to show not an act of violence, but the tragedy of the moment and the emotional experiences of the condemned and their loved ones.
