Danse, Auguste

DANSE, Auguste The Inquisition Tribunal (auto-da-fé). 1899 Drawing, black chalk and charcoal, 52,5 x 71 cm (visible), wove paper, signed and dated at lower right corner "A. Danse 1899". Under passe-partout and wooden frame (not studied outside frame). Spectacular drawing showing an auto-da-fé (Portuguese, "act of faith") by a tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition, being held inside the crypt of a church. Throughout his career the Belgian artist Auguste Danse (1829-1929) was inspired by the great masters of the past. None had such an influence on Danse than Francisco Goya did. The present drawing is clearly inspired by Goya's painting "The Court of the Inquisition", painted in 1812-1819, now in the collection of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. Goya sketched, painted and printed many scenes showing the barbarity and cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition and of the turbulent, warring times in which he lived.