La mort du roi Pierre Ier de Castille

This painting by Arturo Montero y Calvo, titled “The Death of King Peter I of Castile,” depicts the moment when King Peter I of Castile is killed by his half-brother Henry II of Trastámara. The composition presents a dark and dramatic interior centered on the final struggle between the two brothers, while Bertrand du Guesclin stands nearby, holding Peter I so that Henry can strike him. The image emphasizes political violence, dynastic betrayal, and the brutality of a transfer of power. The episode refers to Peter I’s death in 1369, during the confrontation at Montiel. Painted in 1883, this oil on canvas, now part of the Museo del Prado collections and deposited at the University of Zaragoza, belongs to nineteenth-century Spanish history painting, attentive to major episodes of civil war, succession crises, and the heroic and tragic memory of the medieval Iberian world.