Exécution de Jacques Cœur à Poitiers, 1456

This illustration by Alphonse de Neuville depicts a scene captioned as the execution of Jacques Coeur in Poitiers in 1456. The composition shows a figure publicly reading a sentence from a scaffold, surrounded by soldiers, officials, and spectators, while a kneeling man occupies the dramatic center of the scene. The image emphasizes judicial solemnity, the public nature of condemnation, and the collective tension created by this moment of spectacular justice. Produced in the nineteenth century for an illustrated history, it is not a direct witness to the event depicted but a historical reconstruction intended to give visual form to the major political and judicial dramas of the late Middle Ages. It reflects the taste of historical illustration for scaffold scenes, public proclamation, and civic theater.