''The Judgement of Cambyses'' is an

oil on wood A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not pain ...

diptych A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...

by Dutch artist

Gerard David Gerard David (c. 1460 – 13 August 1523) was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color. Only a bare outline of his life survives, although some facts are known. He may have been the Meester ...

, depicting the arrest and

flaying Flaying, also known colloquially as skinning, is a method of slow and painful execution in which skin is removed from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact. Scope A dead animal may be flayed when pr ...

of the corrupt Persian judge

Sisamnes Sisamnes was, according to Herodotus' ''Histories'', a corrupt royal judge active in the Persian empire during the reign of Cambyses II of Persia. When Cambyses learned that Sisamnes had accepted a bribe to influence a verdict, he had him promp ...

on the order of

Cambyses Cambyses may refer to: * Cambyses I, King of Anshan 600 to 559 BCE * Cambyses II, King of Persia 530 to 522 BCE * Cambyses, ancient name of the Iori river in the South Caucasus * ''Cambyses'', a tragedy (published 1569) by Thomas Preston (writer) ...

, based on

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

' '' Histories''. The diptych was commissioned in 1487/1488 by the municipal authorities of

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population. The area of the whole city a ...

which requested a series of panels for the deputy

burgomaster Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, literally "master of the town, master of the borough, master of the fortress, master of the citizens") is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chie ...

's room in the town hall. The diptych was painted on

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

panels and was first mentioned in the Bruges' archives as ''The Last Judgement''. It was used by the town burghers to encourage honesty among the magistrates and as a symbolic public apology for the imprisonment of Maximilian I in Bruges in 1488. The top right corner of the flaying scene features Sisamnes' son dispensing justice from his father's chair, now draped with the flayed skin. It is one of the few works by David that is not based on traditional religious themes. There are also other paintings with the same subject, such as that by Dirck Vellert from 1542.

Usage in protests

David's ''The Judgement of Cambyses'' was used in August 2012 by the supporters of Yulia Timoshenko when they showed the reproduction of the work to the judge who was reviewing her case. In November of the same year two activists showed the reproduction of ''The Judgement of Cambyses'' to the judge Andrey Fedin, who convicted Maxim Luzyanin, involved in the Bolotnaya Square case.

References

External links

''Gerard David : purity of vision in an age of transition''
fully digitized text from The Metropolitan Museum of Art libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Judgement of Cambyses, The 1488 paintings Diptychs Paintings by Gerard David Paintings about death Dogs in art Cambyses II Herodotus