The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers c. 1672 - 1675

Jan de Baen’s canvas offers a chilling glimpse into the fate of the De Witt brothers. The brothers hang, nearly flayed, from a makeshift gallows. Such imagery recalls the "flaying of Marsyas," a mythological scene of brutal punishment, where the satyr Marsyas is skinned alive by Apollo for daring to challenge the god's musical abilities. The act of flaying holds a potent symbolism across cultures and times. It transcends mere torture, becoming a ritualistic act of desecration and humiliation. We see echoes of this in ancient Aztec rituals and in various depictions of martyrdom throughout Christian art, where the body becomes a site of ideological struggle. The grotesque spectacle of the De Witts hanging serves as a stark reminder of the cyclical nature of violence and the fragility of societal order. It’s a brutal display that taps into our collective memory of human cruelty, resonating with a primal fear of bodily violation and societal breakdown. The very act of witnessing such an image leaves an indelible mark.