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The picture shows the left wing of the diptych The Justice of Emperor III.
The Emperor had married the daughter of the King of Aragon. His wife subsequently fell in love with a count of the imperial court. When the latter refused to respond to her advances, she publicly accused him of having made an attempt upon her honour. The Emperor, in a fit of anger, had the count beheaded on the spot. The count's wife asked to prove the truth of her husband's innocence by the ordeal of fire. She won her case, surviving the test unharmed. The Empress was found guilty of false accusation, and condemned to be burned alive.
Each panel of the diptych represents two successive scenes taking place in two adjoining spaces. In the first, we see the Emperor, with his crown and sceptre, and his deceitful wife, standing beside the gate of a fortified town. They are watching as the count, dressed in white, barefoot and his hands bound, is led out to his execution. Several figures, including a Franciscan monk, accompany the condemned man, who is giving his last instructions to his wife as he walks. In the foreground, we rejoin the story after the execution. The count has been decapitated, and his mutilated body lies slumped on the ground. The executioner hands the count's head to his kneeling widow, who wraps it in a white cloth.
The two panels are quite different from one another, both in atmosphere and composition. In the first panel, while the victim's face is distorted with pain, those who are there to witness his death betray no sign of emotion. In the second panel, however, both the courtiers in their expensive fur-trimmed clothes and the other important personages in their robes and red bonnets, are far from impassive. On the contrary, they are openly astonished at the miracle that has taken place before their eyes. In both panels, the vertical composition emphasizes the great height of the figures, which is a common feature in Bouts's work.
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