Judgement of Cambyses

Gerard David's Judgement of Cambyses, painted in 1498 and now in the Groeningemuseum, Bruges, depicts the Persian king Cambyses ordering the flaying of the corrupt judge Sisamnes—a gruesome subject chosen as a warning to the magistrates of Bruges, who commissioned the work for their town hall. David was officially appointed city painter of Bruges and this monumental civic commission ranks among the most important secular paintings of the Northern Renaissance.

David renders the horrific subject with the dispassionate precision of Netherlandish realism, using meticulous oil technique to depict the flaying with anatomical accuracy while maintaining the compositional clarity and balanced color of his mature style.