Axial Commons Image Treasury
Engraving of a beheading in a colonnaded hall, with an executioner, armed guards, and robed onlookers around a fallen figure, with Latin verses below.

Beheading of the Roman Judge Papinian, plate 5 from Thrones of Justice (Thronus Iustitiae)

An engraving showing a muscular executioner in the foreground, seen from behind, raising a sword over a fallen figure on the floor of a colonnaded hall. Armed guards and robed onlookers stand around, with a rounded arch and a painted scene in the background. Latin verses appear in two columns below.

Artist
Willem van Swanenburgh
Date
1606
Medium
Engraving on ivory laid paper
Source
Art Institute of Chicago
Size
1686 × 1296 px
Download full size
Public domain · Art Institute of Chicago releases this image under CC0 (latest date 1606).
Rights checked 2026-11-05 · tier A · as stated by the source: CC0 (Art Institute of Chicago, is_public_domain=true)

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): Art Institute of Chicago, Charles Hack and the Hearn Family Trust Collection, purchased with funds provided by the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial, Amanda S. Johnson and Marion J. Livingston, anonymous, and Suzanne Searle Dixon endowment funds

Español: Decapitación del juez romano Papiniano, de Tronos de la justicia

Un grabado que muestra en primer plano a un verdugo musculoso, visto de espalda, que levanta una espada sobre una figura caída en el suelo de un salón con columnas. Guardias armados y espectadores con túnicas rodean la escena, con un arco de medio punto y una pintura al fondo. Versos en latín aparecen en dos columnas debajo.

Português: Decapitação do juiz romano Papiniano, de Tronos da Justiça

Uma gravura que mostra em primeiro plano um carrasco musculoso, visto de costas, erguendo uma espada sobre uma figura caída no chão de um salão com colunas. Guardas armados e espectadores de túnica rodeiam a cena, com um arco e uma pintura ao fundo. Versos em latim aparecem em duas colunas abaixo.

More from Rome and Ancient Greece

Vertical hanging scroll painting of snowy mountains, bare trees, a pavilion by a gate, and two robed figures on a path in ink and light color.Emperor Song Taizu Visiting Scholar on Snowy NightNeoclassical painting of a reading scene: a seated man in red gestures to a standing man holding a scroll, with a young woman in white and a woman in green beside columns.Virgil Reading the "Aeneid" to Augustus, Octavia, and LiviaEngraving of robed men gathered at night under a full moon, one seated judge at right listening to a gesturing speaker, with a town on the hill behind.Areopagite Judges of Athens, plate 8 from Thrones of Justice (Thronus Iustitiae)Black and white lithograph of two lancers on horseback driving white oxen over rocky ground, with a crouching figure at lower left.Butchers of RomeBrown ink and wash drawing of a vaulted hall with sarcophagi along the left, arches receding to a niche, and small figures near a pedestal.A View in San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, RomeCrowded battle scene with soldiers on horses and foot, war elephants with towers, fallen figures in the foreground, and flags rising above the fighting.The Battle of Zama