Groep personen, waaronder een veroordeelde en de beul, dalen een trap af naar het schavot 1840

Henri Leys created this print, “Group of people, including a convict and the executioner, descend a staircase to the scaffold,” with etching. Leys was enmeshed in the historicizing trends of 19th-century art. This image invokes the spectacle of public execution so common in pre-modern Europe. We see the condemned processing down the stairs, accompanied by robed figures and the looming executioner, as they head to meet their fate. The print offers a view into the rituals of justice and power. The act of public execution was carefully staged, often involving religious elements, as seen in the figure with the book. Justice was not only about punishment, but about reinforcing social order. The emotional weight of the scene is palpable; in the foreground figures kneel in prayer, while on the stairwell above, an official reads to the crowd. Leys asks us to consider the spectacle of justice, and its human cost.