#The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers

[moonfl-0-wer]

I just did something… X

If you know you know

[brujasvascas]

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers,  c.1672 Jan de Baen

[stigmatam4rtyr]

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers (between 1672-1675, oil on canvas) | Jan de Baen

[leofwines]

[elixir]

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers Jan de Baen — 1675

[pmamtraveller]

JAN DE BAEN - THE CORPSES OF THE DE WITT BROTHERS, 1675

In 1672, the major European powers united and launched an attack on the Dutch Republic, posing a danger of overwhelming the nation. This cost the De Witt brothers, Johan and Cornelis, their lives. De Baen's artwork illustrates their lifeless bodies suspended at the Groene Zoodje on the Vijverberg in The Hague. Johan de Witt served as the Pensionary (the actual leader) of Holland, the most influential province. He was killed by a carefully planned lynch "mob" following his visit to his brother Cornelis de Witt in jail. He was lured into this trap by a forged letter.

The aftermath of this interaction, captured in this artwork, is disturbing, to say the least. Stripped of their garments, the siblings were suspended upside down from a wooden beam. They were castrated and disemboweled. Protesters severed fingers, toes, tongues, and noses to trade as keepsakes. A man is thought to have twisted the neck of a stray cat, the carcass of which he inserted into the open cavity where Cornelis’ penis used to be. Every bruise, cut, and amputation was integrated into the artwork.

Witness accounts assert that Johan's body was displayed higher than that of his brother. The rioters did so because he held the most powerful office in the country, and this aspect was noted by de Baen as he envisioned his artwork. As the De Witts lost numerous distinguishing features, it becomes challenging to identify which of the two figures in "Corpses" is supposed to represent which brother. Thankfully, an inscription on the back of the canvas dispels much of the ambiguity:

These are the corpses of Johan and Cornelis de Witt, made by a prominent painter from life as they hung from the post at eleven o’clock in the evening. Cornelis is the one without a wig. Johan de Witt still has his own hair

The painter was, after all, not present at the lynching. Other draftsmen were, and their sketches appeared in newspapers that de Baen then cross referenced to construct his own version of the events. Despite his remoteness from the incident, his interpretation continues to be treated as a kind of hand-painted photograph: an honest, accurate, and reliable depiction of a historical event.

[radfemsiren]

What are your thoughts on the red light district. Everyone just talks about it so casually and there r so many yt vid of men vlogging their time there. It honestly kinda icky. The way people (men) talk about the women who work there, which I'm sure is not a choice they chose happily.

Hmm how I feel about the red light district is perfectly articulated in the tv show Killing Eve, season 2, episode 4…

For those who don’t watch the show, the female assassin dresses up as a prostitute, goes to the red light district, and waits for a John. When he makes his move, she attacks.

She hangs him upside down and cuts down his torso, disemboweling him, and recreating a painting she saw earlier in the season and grew fond of: “The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers” by Dutch artist Jan de Baen.

[gyossefka]

“The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers” by Jan de Baen.

[nighttimepatrons]

"The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers" but make it Celegorm and Curufin. Or perhaps Ambarussa?

[liamgallaghermpreg]

i just thought this had a brothers incest vibe

The De Witt Brothers in Prison, Simon Opzoomer

oh it really does........one in the bed is giving pregnant as well whoa......... googled around and there is a painting of these guys' corpses as well lol

[aquitainequeen]

It would be that, while journeying through the Rijksmuseum, the picture I took the second most photos of was The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers, attributed to Jan de Baen. I remembered it well from my first visit so many years ago. It does tend to stick in the mind and refuse to be dug out.

Instead of including that picture, here's one of a bust of Johan de Witt before all that awful stuff happened to him.

[whineofglass]

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers

[victusinveritas]

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers - Jan de Baen, 1675.

Pictured below are two other views of their rather icky end. Below that are what they looked like before having their wigs split.

The De Witt brothers were popular figures in 17th century Dutch politics until one day they were not so popular with an angry mob. The mob wasn't entirely wrong: they blamed the De Witts for the Dutch Republic getting its ass kicked in a war against the French. Tried for treason, Cornelius de Witt was sentenced to exile and his brother Johan was made to quit his cabinet post in the government. The crowd outside thought this was a slap on the wrist and expressed their displeasure promptly. The mob lynched them and tore the brothers to shreds. Jan de Baen did not miss the opportunity to show a good spur of the moment anatomizing when he had the chance.

[amapolamapola]

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers, Jan de Baen, 1682

[tenebrobscuro]

Jan de Baen, Detail of The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers, ca. 1672-75

[abbiistabbii]

Oh @nevernoterect my dearest sibling in sin, in the UK, the Divine Right of Kings is not merely dead, but it's headless withered corpse is hung up on the doorway of the House of Commons with a sign around it's neck saying "Don't you fucking dare".

History lesson.

So in the year 1625 Charles the First (this smug fucker) came to the throne.

He believed in the divine right of Kings, and after being coronated in Scotland (Scotland was still a separate Kingdom then), he decided to try make the Presbyterian Church of Scotland more Anglican. This caused Scotland to descend into war, during which Ireland fell into war.

Parliament funded the first war, but when Chuckie went to parliament to fund the other war, they told him to fuck off, which lead to him using powers that hadn't been used since Tudor times to tax people directly. This angered parliament so much that both sides raised armies to fight each other in the bloodiest wars (yes wars) seen by the British Isles until World War fucking One.

In 1649, ENGLAND (remember, separate kingdoms back then) PUT THE KING ON TRIAL AND FUCKING BEHEADED HIM A FULL 143 YEARS BEFORE FRANCE DID WITH THEIRS!

Long story short, Great Britain and Ireland had a dictator called Oliver Cromwell for a while who was a fucking Puritan theocrat who among other things banned celebrating Christmas and committed a Genocide in Ireland that still leaves scars today in Anglo-Hiberno relations and after that we restored the Monarchy under his son, Charles the II with the understanding that Parliament is in charge and if any monarch so much as farts wrong it's hippity hoppity time for the choppity.

Then he was followed by his brother who everyone was scared was going to convert to catholicism and be like his dad so we fucking had the Dutch invade and put William and Mary as joint monarchs (the former of which may have had a role in the killing of Johan de Witt, the Dutch Prime Minister who was partially eaten by an angry mob).

So in short @nevernoterect, I haven't merely googled it, I literally studied this as part of my fucking history degree. It's the reason why the Monarch is banned from stepping foot inside the House of Commons. If the current King, Charles, takes a step inside the House of Commons, he will be breaking the law. It also means that George Washington as president had more powers that George III.

In short, the Divine right of Kings is not merely dead in the UK, citing it could cause a constitutional crisis.

Ok so can we talk about how the US Congress funded two art pieces depicting George Washington as a God? Like, fucking seriously?

First one is in the occulus of the Capitol Rotunda dome and it's called the Apotheosis of Washington.

So first off the name: Apotheosis means "the elevation of someone to divine status." Something the Romans did a lot (the Founding Fathers were horny for Ancient Rome) during the Empire days was deify dead emperors, which, you know, is real personality cultish.

This painting shows Washington, being taken up into the clouds in a pose akin to a Greek God like Zeus. Below him is Columbia (a pre-Uncle Sam personification of America) crushing tyrants and kings. Along the edges you have Minerva with Benjamin Franklin, Samuel F. B. Morse, and Robert Fulton, Poseidon and Venus laying a telegraph cable, Mercury giving money to Robert Morris, Vulcan with Canons and a Steam Locomotive, and Ceres helping farmers.

OK, and to stress how much this is "Washington being made a God", the guy who painted this, Constantino Brumidi, started out his art career painting religious shit for the Vatican. The US Congress hired this man who was primarily known for his work painting art for the Catholic Church to paint George Washington being made a God.

Oh, but you know how I said there are two? Well guess fucking what, Congress commissioned another thing depicting George Washington as a God.

This is "George Washington" by Horatio Greenough, also known as "Washington Enthroned" and depicts Washington as a Greek God, clothes, pose and all.

Now this too was made for the Rotunda, but people found it controversial, not because it depicted George Washington as a fuckin' God, but because he was Half naked. People's main issue was the man was half naked, not that he was being depicted as a Greek fucking God.

Now I know you are all going to be all "Aren't you from the UK with the Monarchy and..."

We don't treat any historical figure like this. Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers. Nobody is literally depicted as a God in a serious work of art.

The most any Monarch gets is a statue, or something named after them. The tower containing Big Ben is named after Elizabeth the Second. Winston Churchill is used a lot in Nationalistic shit but even the shaggiest of flag shagger would think depicting the man as a God is too far. We have some big monuments to some figures, Sir Walter Scott has a 61.11 m high gothic tower in Princes street in Edinburgh, William Wallace has a Tower in 67 m tall tower just outside Stirling, but nobody is like depicting them as a God. But here you are, America, depicting Washington as a fucking God like that's a normal things healthy countries do.

Fuck, Mount Rushmore was funded by the Government too, where they saw a Mountain Sacred to the Dakota and was all "Let's carve the Heads of Presidents on that." They saw a sacred site and decided to deify not just Washington, but four other presidents too.

Jesus Christ America.