Beheading

A composition of cruel humiliation, right beyond evident violence, is what creates this small bronze which describes the moment before the execution: while the executioner holds in hand the pole, instrument of pillory which holds the condemned man still, he’s immovable in the muscular tension necessary to contrast any attempt of escape, the other, on the opposite side wields the axe that is about to go down on the neck of the victim. The tension of the stillness is opposed to the ferocity of the movement and they create an upside-down triangle which climax is represented by the kneeling prisoner’s figure with his head bowed down which however pictures the expression of physical and moral suppression, the emptying of any dignity and determination.