Martyrdom Of The Ten Thousand Analysis

The painting Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand by Albrecht Durer was made in 1508. It was commissioned for the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. It is Oil on panel transferred to a canvas. What I found interesting is the amount of detail and how everywhere you look there’s something happening. The painting uses a pyramid layout to get a sense of balance. A color in the painting that only appears in one location is black which can be interpreted as death. It also shows men being led to their death. The northern renaissance, art was centered around religion and some art was mathematically calculated .
What I found interesting is how much detail there is in the entire painting. The painting draws the eyes from the top to the bottom the composition uses this to draw the eyes down. The painting uses vibrant colors for the clothing and natural colors for the environment. All the people that are not being killed have little to no clothing and the those in charge have nice looking clothing and are fully dressed. There seems to be diffuse lighting as everything looks well lit. Although the canvas is busy the composition I don’t think it discourage the viewers. With the larger amount of
The battle did not go as planned and they all fled except for nine thousand soldiers. These soldiers were converted to Christianity after angels appeared to them with the promise of victory they had completely routed the enemy. The two emperors heard of this victory and they sent for the soldiers to come home but they refused. They were enraged by the insubordination that they asked the five kings the rulers of the area to bring them back. They were trapped on a mount providing they denied their faith they would have a passage home. However they refused at this point the nine thousand were joined by another thousand, the emperors ordered every one of the ten thousand to be