Focus on the Collection: “The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand”

Severed heads roll on the ground, whips swirl through the air, men are forced off a cliff, and a bishop’s eye is gouged with a hand crank, right at the feet of a group of richly dressed noblemen. Albrecht Dürer’s The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand revels in displaying brutal methods of torture and execution. In this woodcut, Dürer portrays a popular medieval legend, telling the story of ten thousand Roman soldiers who converted to Christianity. It was illegal to…