The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

This painting, executed by François Dubois in the years following the events and held at the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, depicts the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre that began in Paris on the night of 23-24 August 1572. A Huguenot from Amiens who took refuge in Geneva after himself escaping the massacre, Dubois details several emblematic scenes of the killing: the body of admiral Coligny thrown from the window of his lodging in the foreground, queen mother Catherine de' Medici observing the piled-up corpses, and summary executions in the streets of the capital. The only known work attributed to this artist, this painting constitutes a unique visual testimony, produced by a Protestant survivor, of one of the most tragic episodes of the Wars of Religion, whose kingdom-wide toll is estimated between ten thousand and thirty thousand dead.