Dürer, Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand on Mount Ararat, 1508, oil on canvas, 99 x 87 cm.
Marter der zehntausend Christen.
The painting depicts the legend of how circa 130 allegedly an army of Middle East rulers by order of the Roman emperors Hadrian and Antoninus executed on Mount Ararat in Armenia ten thousand Roman soldiers, led by Achatius and converted to Christianity by a miracle. The massacre was a retaliation of a previous confrontation of a large army, led by the Roman emperors, with revolting people from the Euphrates region, but the confrontation turned out to be a debacle. All soldiers fled except ten thousand men, converted by the appearance of angels, promising them victory. The converted soldiers then attacked and subjugated the revolting population. However, devoted to their Christian faith, they refused to comply with a pressing incitation from Rome to join for a thanksgiving to the Roman gods. Enraged by their disobedience, the Roman emperors ordered their execution.
The barbarity in Dürer’s painting is displayed in a multitude of ways of torturing and killing the converts. On the foreground to the left, converts hang crucified. A prisoner with a crown of thorns on his head is escorted to suffer a similar fate. A blindfolded man is about to be decapitated, close by a tied up corpse and its decapitated head lying on the ground. An executioner presses one foot on his victim’s chest before striking the man’s head with a huge wooden hammer. In the middle distance, prisoners are driven up the mountain to be undressed, thrown off the cliffs, stoned or hit to death. In the lower right corner, an oriental prince, dressed in a blue cloak, is supervising the slaughter. Above, a Persian sovereign on horseback, one of the rulers called in by the Roman emperors, is pictured as an Ottoman sultan, believed to be a reference to the Turkish invasion threat, felt in Dürer’s time after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
Twelve years before the painting, Dürer had depicted the massacre in a woodcut, where Achatius, the leader of the converts, is seen on the foreground, tortured by having his eyes stripped. In this painting in the middle distance, the bishop is painted in chains, before having to suffer cruelty.
The painting was commissioned by Frederick the Wise, who is said to have owned relics from the massacre. Surprisingly, right in the centre of Dürer’s macabre killing scenes two figures, dressed in black, do not appear to belong to the group of soldiers slain for their religion. One is Dürer himself, holding a banner saying, that his work was done in the year 1508. The other is Conrad Celtis, a German humanist, who died not long before the painting was completed, and whom Dürer portrayed next to him as a tribute to his friend.
For several details of the painting, see next pictures
Dürer, Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand on Mount Ararat, 1508, oil on canvas, 99 x 87 cm.
Marter der zehntausend Christen.
The painting depicts the legend of how circa 130 allegedly an army of Middle East rulers by order of the Roman emperors Hadrian and Antoninus executed on Mount Ararat in Armenia ten thousand Roman soldiers, led by Achatius and converted to Christianity by a miracle. The massacre was a retaliation of a previous confrontation of a large army, led by the Roman emperors, with revolting people from the Euphrates region, but the confrontation turned out to be a debacle. All soldiers fled except ten thousand men, converted by the appearance of angels, promising them victory. The converted soldiers then attacked and subjugated the revolting population. However, devoted to their Christian faith, they refused to comply with a pressing incitation from Rome to join for a thanksgiving to the Roman gods. Enraged by their disobedience, the Roman emperors ordered their execution.
The barbarity in Dürer’s painting is displayed in a multitude of ways of torturing and killing the converts. On the foreground to the left, converts hang crucified. A prisoner with a crown of thorns on his head is escorted to suffer a similar fate. A blindfolded man is about to be decapitated, close by a tied up corpse and its decapitated head lying on the ground. An executioner presses one foot on his victim’s chest before striking the man’s head with a huge wooden hammer. In the middle distance, prisoners are driven up the mountain to be undressed, thrown off the cliffs, stoned or hit to death. In the lower right corner, an oriental prince, dressed in a blue cloak, is supervising the slaughter. Above, a Persian sovereign on horseback, one of the rulers called in by the Roman emperors, is pictured as an Ottoman sultan, believed to be a reference to the Turkish invasion threat, felt in Dürer’s time after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453.
Twelve years before the painting, Dürer had depicted the massacre in a woodcut, where Achatius, the leader of the converts, is seen on the foreground, tortured by having his eyes stripped. In this painting in the middle distance, the bishop is painted in chains, before having to suffer cruelty.
The painting was commissioned by Frederick the Wise, who is said to have owned relics from the massacre. Surprisingly, right in the centre of Dürer’s macabre killing scenes two figures, dressed in black, do not appear to belong to the group of soldiers slain for their religion. One is Dürer himself, holding a banner saying, that his work was done in the year 1508. The other is Conrad Celtis, a German humanist, who died not long before the painting was completed, and whom Dürer portrayed next to him as a tribute to his friend.
For several details of the painting, see next pictures