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Tree was planted near the cement that prevent the absorption of the water. The tree was sick and it had to be removed.
This is the plaque from Kilmainham Jail in Dublin. It commemorates the executed leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916.
Mr. Ghassemi-Shall faces imminent execution in Iran. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonczy issued a joint statement asking Iran to release and halt the execution of Hamid Ghassemi-Shall.
Hamid Ghassemi-Shall was arrested in late May 2008 while visiting his mother in Iran. This arrest took place approximately two weeks after the arrest of his brother, Alborz Ghassemi-Shall.
In November 2009 Hamid’s wife in Canada received reports that both Hamid and Alborz were convicted of espionage and sentenced to death. The legal proceedings were deeply unfair and neither Hamid or Alborz had a meaningful opportunity to defend themselves. His conviction appears to be based on a document of an alleged email exchange between Hamid and Alborz. Hamid has unequivocally stated that the document is a complete fabrication and that he never sent any such message. Testing and analysis by his lawyer reportedly confirm that to be the case.
Hamid and Alborz were in solitary confinement for 18 months until the end of November 2009 when they were transferred to a general population section in Tehran's Evin prison. On 20 January 2010 Alborz died in prison, reportedly of stomach cancer. Mr. Hamid Ghassemi-Shall reported that both he and Alborz were subject to “extreme pressure” during their detention.
Hamid Ghassemi-Shall was sentenced to death. His case has undergone a number of reviews, but the family confirmed in March 2012 that the death sentance has not been lifted.
Take Action
Write the Iranian authorities. Request that they:
Guarantee that Mr. Hamid Ghassemi-Shall will not be executed.
Release Mr. Hamid Ghassemi-Shall immediately unless he is promptly brought to trial on recognizably criminal charges in legal proceedings that fully conform to international fair trial standards.
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street – End of Shahid
Keshvar Doust Street
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Salutation: Your Excellency
Email: info_leader@leader.ir AND tweet @khamenei_ir
Copies to:
Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani
Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur Street, Vali Asr Avenue, south of
Serah-e Jomhouri
Tehran, 1316814737
Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com or info@dadiran.ir (In the subject line, write FAO Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Copies to:
Mr Kambiz Sheikh Hassani
Chargé d’Affaires, Embassy for the Islamic Republic of Iran
245 Metcalfe Street
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2K2
Fax: (613) 232-5712
Email: executive@iranembassy.ca
More Background
The Canadian government has sponsored a resolution censuring Iran at the United Nations General Assembly human rights committee, every year since the 2003 torture and death while in custody, of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi in Iran. The resolution has expressed deep concern at serious ongoing human rights violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The violations include torture, flogging, amputations, stoning, and "pervasive gender inequality and violence against women." Canada has also "particular concern" with the Iranian government's failure to launch a thorough investigation of alleged human rights violations in the wake of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contested re-election in 2009.
In a new year’s statement on January 1, 2011 the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, expressed deep concern for the “deteriorating human rights situation in Iran.” He expressed particular concern for the uncertain fate of two Canadians of dual nationality who remain in prison in Iran. (Hamid Ghassemi- Shall and Hossein Derakhshan). He further referred to reports that Saeed Malekpour, a Canadian permanent resident, has been condemned to death and that his sentence could be carried out at any time. Minister Cannon encouraged the Iranian authorities to show mercy and compassion to those who are in Iran’s prisons without just cause, and called on Iran to respect its international human rights obligations in law and in practice and to foster a more open dialogue with the international community.
خواهر حمید قاسمی: شما را به خدا نگذارید برادرم را اعدام کنند، حمید حتی فعال سیاسی هم نیست
soundcloud.com/frl-journalist/hamidghasemi
■■■■■ www.persianicons.org/human-right/iranian-canadian-facing-... ■■■■■
Kilmainham Gaol was built in 1796 as a replacement for an older prison. It has a sorrowful past with deplorable conditions. It is the place of imprisonment and subsequent execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. This yard is where these executions were carried out.
/ My Blog / Best Served Cold /
A view of the impressive Tsarevets fortress and the Yantra River. To the far left of the complex stands the "Execution rock" where traitors were pushed to their death.
Famously, Patriarch Joachim was executed by the Tsar Theodore Svetoslav in the year 1300. The body was then left for the river to carry away.
License at www.paya.com/photos/1185894
Information from:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant's_Tomb
The granite and marble structure was designed by architect John Duncan, and completed in 1897.[1] The National Park Service maintains that it is the largest mausoleum in North America. Duncan took as his general model the eponymous structure, the tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the world; or rather a modern execution of a conception of it, since it is not known what it looked like.[2] A huge public subscription paid for it. Over a million people attended Grant's funeral parade in 1885. It was seven miles (11 km) long and featured Confederate and Union generals riding together in open victorias, U.S. President Grover Cleveland, his cabinet, all the Justices of the Supreme Court, and virtually the entire Congress. The parade for the dedication ceremony of the tomb, held April 27, 1897, the 75th anniversary of Grant's birth, was almost as large and was headed by President William McKinley. New York City was chosen as the burial site so that Mrs. Grant could visit frequently, and because Grant was grateful to New Yorkers for their outpouring of affection during his later years.
Tombs of Ulysses and Julia Grant.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) wrote:
"As one by one withdraw the lofty actors
From that great play on history's stage eterne
That lurid, partial act of War and peace—of old and new contending,
Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense;
All past—and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,
Victors and vanquish'd—Lincoln's and Lee's—now thou with them,
Man of the mighty days—and equal to the days!
Thou from the prairies!—tangled and many-vein'd and hard has been thy part,
To admiration has it been enacted!"
Duncan's overly-ambitious original design, chosen by the Grant Monument Association, included monumental staircases leading down through terraced gardens to a dock on the river, bridging the Hudson Line railroad tracks and providing public access to the shoreline. This plan was scaled back and the monument itself was reduced in size.
The completed structure includes a main lobby overlooking a sanctuary in which Grant and his wife are entombed, guarded by busts of Civil War generals William T. Sherman, George H. Thomas, James B. McPherson, Philip H. Sheridan, and E.O.C. Ord. The domed space, with commemorative mosaic murals and sculpture, including "Victory" and "Peace" by J. Massey Rhind, and a large central oculus revealing on the lower level the twin granite sarcophagi of the President and Mrs. Grant, are quite spectacular examples of purely symbolic Beaux-Arts civic triumphalism. The conception has similarities to the design for the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte at Les Invalides in Paris.[2] Over the entrance are carved words from Grant's letter accepting the Republican nomination for President in 1868: "Let us have peace."
Grant's tomb 2004
National Park Service administration of the national memorial was authorized on August 14, 1958. (President Grant signed the act establishing the first national park, Yellowstone.) As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
[edit]Decay and restoration
In the late 20th century and despite being legally protected by the National Park Service, the tomb was allowed through neglect[3] to gradually decline to a state of severe disrepair.[4] While New York City's subway trains were being vandalized with spray-painted graffiti[5], so was the tomb.[6] The defaced tomb was considered by many to be an eyesore, but it was low on the priority list for restoration.[7] Attitudes changed, however, when interest in the American Civil War and its generals increased significantly in 1989 with the release of a hit U.S. motion picture, Glory, which was based on a true event in the Civil War. In 1990, the Ken Burns PBS television documentary, The Civil War, was broadcast to a large audience[8] and received critical acclaim. It contributed to the spark of national interest in this period of American history. Suddenly, reenactments of Civil War battles nationwide became highly popular and battlefield sites again became major tourist destinations.
As more persons began to seek out and visit Grant's Tomb, it was natural that more people would notice its defaced condition.[9] In the early 1990s, a paper concerning the deteriorating condition of Grant's Tomb by a Columbia University[10] student, Frank Scaturro[11], was released to the news media and attracted nationwide interest. He had previously urged restoration of the tomb by writing to supervisors of the National Park Service, but had been repeatedly rebuffed and ignored, so he went over their heads to get attention. At this period in the mid-1990s New York was making a successful comeback, with Times Square, Central Park, and the city's subway trains already cleaned up. New Yorkers were surprised to learn that a national shrine — and one of their city's historic tourist destinations — had been largely forgotten while other improvements had been made across the city.
View from the crypt level of Grant's Tomb, showing the ceiling, rotunda, and mural of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee following restoration
As a result of Mr. Scaturro's revelations, Grant's descendants[12] and the Illinois state legislature threatened to remove the remains of the former President and First Lady and have them buried in Illinois.[13] The National Park Service was embarrassed into spending $1.8 million[14] to restore the memorial and to provide for upkeep and increased security monitoring.[15] When the work was complete, a re-dedication[16] was held on the dedication's centennial, April 27, 1997.[17]
The New York City Navy ROTC unit now uses the large area in front of the tomb for May commissioning ceremonies of new ensigns (Navy) and second lieutenants (Marine Corps).
The Grant Monument Association is currently making plans to add a new visitor center behind the tomb[18], complete with public restrooms[19] which are prohibited in the tomb itself[20] under the express stipulation of Mrs. Grant.[21] The existing adjacent Overlook Pavilion, which affords a view of the Hudson River, is currently undergoing restoration.
[edit]Public art project
In 1972, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Yellowstone National Park, a sculpture consisting of 17 concrete benches bearing colorful mosaics was created around the monument. The sculpture, entitled The Rolling Bench, was designed by artist Pedro Silva and the architect Phillip Danzig, and was built with the help of hundreds of neighborhood children over a period of three years.[22] The project was sponsored by CITYarts, a non-profit organization founded in 1968 to create works of public art by bringing together children and artists. The sculpture underwent restoration during the summer of 2008 under the supervision of Silva
Dozens of pickets protesting the pending execution of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg file past the White House February 14, 1953 after Inaugural stands were removed.
A 24-hour vigil had earlier been restricted to East Executive Drive until the stands were removed.
Some of the picket signs read, “Mr. President The Rosenbergs Maintain Their Innocence!” “Afro-American says there are Grave Doubts in this Case!” “Mr. President 3000 Ministers Appealed to your Conscience! Reconsider Clemency for the Rosenbergs!” and “The electric chair can’t kill the doubts in the Rosenberg case.”
The vigil and picketers were seeking clemency for the Rosenbergs who were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the then wartime ally Soviet Union during 1943-44.
The signs read: “Millions All Over the World Plead: Spare the Rosenbergs,” “Wire-write to President Truman today: clemency for the Rosenbergs,” “While doubt of guilt remains commute the Rosenbergs’ death sentence” and “Justice in the United States must not be more vindictive than in other countries.”
The protest was sponsored by the Committee to Secure Justice for the Rosenbergs that vowed to organize 24-hour vigils until Truman granted clemency. Picket lines in and around the White House were in fact continuous until the Rosenberg’s execution.
The Rosenbergs and a third man, Morton Sobell, were tried together for passing classified information to the Soviet Union related to an atomic bomb.
Part of the prosecution strategy was to emphasize their ties to the Communist Party at a time when hysteria over communists in the U.S. was at an all-time high during the Cold War and with U.S. troops battling in Korea against forces aided by both the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.
The Rosenbergs were convicted, sentenced to death and then executed June 19, 1953 despite an international outcry for clemency. Sobell served 17 ½ years of a 30-year sentence.
The Rosenbergs were the only people executed by the U.S. for espionage during the Cold War and the only U.S. citizen civilians in modern times executed by the U.S. for their role in passing secrets to another country.
The debate over their sentences continues today, with President Barack Obama refusing to grant posthumous clemency to Ethel Rosenberg while he was in office.
The political climate in the U.S. at the time of their arrest and conviction was one of fear--the onset of the Cold War with the Soviet Union following confrontation in Europe and the Soviet Union’s test of an atomic bomb in 1949.
Leadership at many levels of the Communist Party USA were being sentenced to jail for their beliefs while the rank and file members were blacklisted from employment and persecuted during the second red scare.
At the same time, U.S. forces were fighting in Korea against the communist-led regime centered in North Korea and aided by the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union.
While the U.S. and the Soviet Union were allies in World War II, the U.S. did not share information on the atom bomb project.
The Rosenbergs joined the Young Communist League in the late 1930s. According to his former Soviet handler Alexander Feklisov, Julius began passing classified documents to the Soviet Union while at the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey in 1940.
The prosecution saw Julius’ potential cooperation as a chance to break a larger Soviet intelligence group in the U.S. and believed the only way to break Julius was to expose his wife Ethel to the death penalty. The ploy didn’t work.
In imposing the death penalty, Judge Irving Kaufman noted that he held them responsible not only for espionage but also for the deaths of the Korean War:
“I consider your crime worse than murder... I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-Bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. No one can say that we do not live in a constant state of tension. We have evidence of your treachery all around us every day for the civilian defense activities throughout the nation are aimed at preparing us for an atom bomb attack.”
Commenting on the sentence given to them, Julius Rosenberg claimed the case was a political frame-up.
“This death sentence is not surprising. It had to be. There had to be a Rosenberg case, because there had to be an intensification of the hysteria in America to make the Korean War acceptable to the American people. There had to be hysteria and a fear sent through America in order to get increased war budgets. And there had to be a dagger thrust in the heart of the left to tell them that you are no longer gonna get five years for a Smith Act prosecution or one year for contempt of court, but we're gonna kill ya!”
An article by Norman Markowitz for Political Affairs in 2008 sums up another point of view.
“These were people who, for ill or for good, admired both Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and President Franklin Roosevelt as advancing the struggle for working-class liberation against fascism. They saw them as helping to bring about more than a “better world,” but a world with a socialist system that fostered equality, peace and social justice. If patriotism in its most simple definition means love of country, this was the America that communists defended and loved, rather than the America of Standard Oil, Herbert and J. Edgar Hoover, the corporate leadership ready and willing to do business with Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese militarists both to make money and fight socialist revolutions.”
This point of view also holds that providing the Soviets with intelligence on the atomic bomb helped ensure that the U.S. would not launch nuclear weapons again after the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945.
The question of the Rosenberg’s guilt has been debated since their arrest. Evidence uncovered in more recent years that convincingly indicates that Julius was involved in espionage. The evidence against Ethel is less convincing and more circumstantial.
Those charged or implicated with the Rosenbergs include:
Julius Rosenberg: executed June 19, 1953
Ethel Rosenberg: executed June 19, 1953
David Greenglass: served 9 and half years of a 15-year sentence
Ruth Greenglass: not charged, granted immunity
Morton Sobell: served 17 years, nine months of a 30-year sentence
Harry Gold: served 14 years of a 30-year sentence
Klaus Fuchs: served 9 years of a 14-year sentence in Great Britain
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHskkQha2c
Photo by Ranny Routt. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
day 85 – Saddam’s execution has haunted me all day.
My TV is set to wake me in the morning; it is a more gentle way to wake up than the insipid beeping of an alarm clock which, as well as waking you, induces a coronary heart attack.
This morning I woke gently to the news that a man had been executed. At 6am Iraq time Saddam Hussein was hanged. I couldn't quite believe it had happened. I sat up and watched the continuous report on BBC news and all I could think of was that one more person had lost a life.
Saddam, from what little I know, was not a nice man. He was directly and indirectly responsible for literally millions of lost lives. His regime tortured and brutalised a nation and his legacy continues to infect what was once the centre of civilisation.
This presents me with a moral problem. I just can not condone capital punishment. It is a brutal way to carry out justice and no one, and I mean no one, deserves to die in that manner. But in taking that stance I am asking for mercy and compassion for a man that showed none to his victims. I have to admit I briefly thought that his death was a good thing but I quickly retracted that thought. In a modern society we should not execute people. Let’s face it, there is no punishment that befits genocide and mass murder and another death does little to help.
The other disturbing thing about this event is the display of the execution on TV. I remember the uproar when terrorists executed Kenneth Bigley by beheading him. They then distributed the video over the Internet. The world was outraged. Are we any different presenting Saddam’s execution? We need to take a step back and think about what we are looking at. I heard someone say “Oh the hanging is on the Internet, Can I look?” I said “Why?” The reply was slightly chilling “Oh I don’t know. It might be interesting, might be fun.” I was taken aback at the thought that someone I know well could actually see the death of another human as entertaining.
I wonder if we will ever learn.
Taliban Execution - Three Northern Alliance soldiers fire simultaneously into a Taliban soldier who had been captured while attempting to resist their advance toward Kabul, Afghanistan. A small number of hardline Taliban soldiers chose to stay on the front line and fight the Northern Alliance, and those who didn't escape were killed immediately. The man yelling in the background was encouraging the soldiers in their actions.
The Bukit Kepong Incident was an armed encounter which took place on February 23, 1950 between the Federation of Malaya Police and the communist terrorists of Malayan Communist Party during the Malayan Emergency. This conflict took place in an area surrounding the Bukit Kepong police station in Bukit Kepong. The wooden station was located on the river bank of the Muar River, about 59 km from Muar town, Johor State.
The incident started just before dawn with the Communists launching a guerrilla assault on the police station leading to the deaths of almost all of the police officers stationed there. When they began the siege, the attackers strongly believed that they would be able to defeat the policemen and gain control of the police station within a short span of time. This is due to several factors in their favour: their arms and numerical superiority and the relative isolation of the station. The battle began at about 4:15 am.
According to eyewitness accounts, there were about 200 Communists attacking, led by Muhammad Indera, a Malay Communist. Despite the odds, the policemen led by Sgt. Jamil Mohd Shah, refused to surrender, although numerous calls by the communists for them to lay down arms were made. Several officers were killed as the shooting continued and two wives of the defending officers took up arms when they discovered that their husbands fell in battle.
Desperate and alarmed at the defenders’ tenacity, the Communists captured one of the officers’ wives and threatened her at gunpoint to urge the policemen to surrender. The defenders replied that they would never surrender and continued fighting. Another wife of the officers (Fatimah Yaaba) and her daughter were also forced to do the same. Their refusal then resulted in their execution.
In the final hours of the fierce battle, the Communists set fire to the officers’ barracks and station. Two women and their children were burnt to death in the married quarters. At that point only 3 policemen plus a village guard were still alive. They rushed out from the burning station, unable to withstand the heat. They then assaulted the Communists position, killing at least 3 of them.
Only about five hours after the first shot was fired did the communists manage to break their defences and set the place ablaze. They then retreated into the jungle.
14 policemen, 4 village guards, 3 auxiliary policemen, wife of Abu Bakar Daud (one of the surviving policemen) and three of their children were killed in the incident. The total number of deaths is 25. Those who survived the bloody encounter are 4 policemen and 9 family members including their wives and children.
During the attack, reinforcement were sent from Kampung Tui as the battle reverberated throughout several of the nearby villages. A band of villagers led by the village chief Ali Mustafa from Kampung Tui was escorted by 13 AP/HG (Auxiliary Police/Home Guard). They were ambushed by the Communists en route about half a kilometre away from the station. The villagers were outgunned by the Communists who were using automatic weapons as opposed to rifles and shotguns held by the villagers. Several village guards were wounded and killed. Although stopped halfway, their presence relieved some pressure of the Bukit Kepong defenders and forced a general Communist retreat.
Due to the numerical superiority of the enemy, Ali Mustafa ordered his guards to retreat while the rest were ordered to defend the perimeter around Bukit Kepong town. The Communists eventually retreated after setting fire to the village government office and robbing a few stores.
At the same time, another village guard group came from Kampung Durian Chondong using a sampan heading towards Bukit Kepong to render aid. On the way, they were also ambushed by the Communists. About half of the 7 villagers in the group survived to continue on to Lenga. They arrived there at 10am and that was when the first news of the attack on Bukit Kepong police station was communicated.
When the village guards entered the village, they were able to observe the aftermath of the attack. The village chief took command of the outpost until relieved by a police team from Muar. The battle at Bukit Kepong is considered to be a tragic defeat although it strengthened the Government’s and people’s resolve to fight the Communist insurgency. A small force defending against overwhelming odds gave the war against Communist insurgency a massive boost in terms of morale and honour. Some drew comparisons between the Bukit Kepong incident and the Alamo, where the Bukit Kepong policemen similar to the Texans came under overwhelming odds and fought to the last man.
List of killed in action (KIA)
Policemen
Sergeant 3493 Jamil Mohd Shah (Bukit Kepong police chief)
Corporal 7068 Mohd Yassin Haji Wahab
Lance Corporal 7168 Jidin Omar
Police Constable (PC) 3933 Hamzah Ahmad
PC 5674 Abu Mohd Ali
PC 7493 Muhamad Jaafar
PC 7862 Abu Kadir Jusoh
PC 8600 Jaafar Hassan
PC 9136 Hassan Osman
Extra Police Constable (EPC) 3475 Mohd Top Lazim
EPC 3795 Jaafar Arshad
Marine Constable (MPC) 60 Ibrahim Adam
MPC 68 Awang Ali
MPC 181 Basiron Adam
Auxiliary Police (AP) were killed in action (KIA) outside police station
AP Redzuan Alias
Embong Lazim
Koh Ah Cheng
Non-combatants (Auxiliary Police (AP))
Ins. Kudarina Naknok
AP 2130 Samad Yatim
AP Mahmood Saat
AP 1925 Ali Akop
AP 2127 Othman Yahya
Police family members
Fatimah Yaaba - wife of Marine Constable Abu Bakar Daud
Hassan Abu Bakar - son of Marine Constable Abu Bakar Daud
Saadiah - wife of Constable Abu Mohd Ali
Simah Abu - daughter of Constable Abu Mohd Ali
Malayan Communist Party
40 guerilla fighters (names unknown)
List of survivors
Policemen
PC 10533 Othman Yusoff
MPC 37 Abu Bakar Daud
EPC 3472 Ahmad Khalid
PC 7645 Haji Yusoff Rono
Note: All officers are deceased.
Police family members
Mariam Ibrahim - widow of Constable Muhamad Jaafar
Zainun Muhamad - daughter of Constable Muhamad Jaafar
Abu Samah Muhammad - son of Constable Muhamad Jaafar
Zaleha - daughter of Constable Muhamad Jaafar
Jamilah - daughter of Marine Constable Abu Bakar Daud
Hussain - son of Marine Constable Abu Bakar Daud
Fatimah Abdul Manan Timah Lawa - widow of Constable Hassan Osman
Pon Khalid - widow of Marine Constable Awang Ali
Fatimah Tuani - widow of Constable Hamzah Ahmad
Edmund Ross Williams Hunt - orang asli who worked as a mountain guide at Bukit Kepong.
Source: Wikipaedia
Douggy Carpool: hey how r u doin
Kaycee Nightfire: ok
Douggy Carpool: wat u doin out there
Kaycee Nightfire: shooting a bear
Guess I'm not going to Disney World anytime soon .....
Knight Elkcrown's squire won a fair battle. But no blood was to be spilled, said the bailiff, and the losing squire's life got spared.
An old penny arcade machine in pretty bad taste at North Somerset Museum. You put in money... and the guy gets executed.
Exécution sans jugement sous les rois Maures de Grenade (Execution without judgement under the Moorish Kings of Grenada)
1870
By Henri Regnault (1843 - 1871)
Oil on canvas, H. 3.02 ; L. 1.46 m
musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Regnault’s grand canvas still unsettles many visitors to the Musée d’Orsay. Whereas other nearby paintings in the museum have long since lost their avant-garde capacity to disturb viewers’ expectations, Regnault’s canvas has retained its shock value. One major reason for this response is not so much the bloody scene in the foreground as the viewer’s position vis-à-vis this macabre subject. As Linda Nochlin has pointed out, when the canvas is hung at the correct height, the decapitated corpse rests at the viewer’s own eye level.
My entry for the Vignette 2012 Contest Historic theme. This vignette displays the execution of Murdock. Murdock has stolen food from a towns food reserves that it needed to help bring the folk through the winter. This is a serious crime and is punished by "The Hunger Chain". The thief is chained so that he can almost reach the food and water in front of him. Almost. He will die a slow and terrible death. The Guard ensures that nobody tries to free or kill him. This will teach people not to steal from the food reserves!
f.y.i.: this is a rebuild of an earlier version.
Execution Rocks Lighthouse is an active lighthouse, located in the Long Island Sound, protecting mariners traveling those waters.
Image © 2013 Clarence Holmes / Clarence Holmes Photography, All Rights Reserved. The image is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws, and is not to be downloaded or reproduced in any way without written permission.
If you would like to use this image for any purpose, please see the available licensing and/or print options for this image on my website or contact me with any questions that you may have.
The Rebels Return Wood Sculptures. Wat Tyler Park, Basildon, Essex.
Full size high quality images available on request.
Charcoal, wash, pencil and white chalk on paper; 42.3 x 28 cm.
After studying at the Vienna School of Decorative Arts, Klimt in 1883 opened an independent studio specializing in the execution of mural paintings. His early work was typical of late 19th-century academic painting, as can be seen in his murals for the Vienna Burgtheater (1888) and on the staircase of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
In 1897 Klimt’s mature style emerged, and he founded the Vienna Sezession, a group of painters who revolted against academic art in favor of a highly decorative style similar to Art Nouveau. Soon thereafter he painted three allegorical murals for the ceiling of the University of Vienna auditorium that were violently criticized; the erotic symbolism and pessimism of these works created such a scandal that the murals were rejected. His later murals, the Beethoven Frieze (1902) and the murals (1909–11) in the dining room of the Stoclet House in Brussels, are characterized by precisely linear drawing and the bold and arbitrary use of flat, decorative patterns of color and gold leaf. Klimt’s most successful works include The Kiss (1907–08) and a series of portraits of fashionable Viennese matrons, such as Frau Fritza Riedler (1906) and Frau Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907). In these works he treats the human figure without shadow and heightens the lush sensuality of skin by surrounding it with areas of flat, highly ornamental, and brilliantly composed areas of decoration.
During World War II Frau Adele Bloch-Bauer and several other Klimt paintings belonging to the Bloch-Bauer family were confiscated by the Nazis and eventually added to the collection of the Österreichische Gallery in Vienna. These works later became the focus of a lengthy legal battle, and in 2006 they were finally returned to the family. Later that year Frau Adele Bloch-Bauer was sold to the Neue Galerie in New York City for a then-record price of $135 million.