The King's Sons Shooting at Their Father's Corpse 1500 - 1600

This pen and black ink drawing, "The King's Sons Shooting at Their Father's Corpse," was created in 1529 by an anonymous artist. The composition divides our attention between the stark, suspended corpse on the left and the archers on the right. The contrast between the still, lifeless form and the active, weapon-wielding figures creates a disturbing tension, heightened by the delicate yet precise linework. The artist uses dense hatching to create a sense of depth and shadow, emphasizing the grim nature of the scene. The archers, poised and ready, are rendered with a detailed focus that draws us into their act of parricide, an act that challenges the established hierarchies of family and power. This challenges the divine right of Kings. The grotesque subject matter, combined with the formal clarity of the drawing, destabilizes our understanding of morality and authority, inviting us to question the boundaries of human behavior and the structures that govern it.