These two works by the Italian painter Alessandro Magnasco are quite original both in terms of theme and technique.
They reveal the stark reality of daily life on the galley ships. In the work on the left The Arrival and Interrogation of the Galerians in the Prison at Genoa, the torture victims, held back by their rusty iron chains cutting into their arms and legs, are dragged and martyrized by their torturers. In the background of this painting, you can also see a strappado being carried out. This torture consisted of hanging prisoners by a rope until they confessed their wrongdoings.
In the painting on the right, entitled The Boarding of the Galerians in the Port of Genoa, the ferocious persecutors take advantage of their prisoners on the quays and on the galley ship, branding them with irons or dragging them off by their hair to prison. Magnasco has used austere colours to fully express the horror, the lighter-coloured figures standing out against a dramatically-lit sombre background. The two compositions belong to Piranesi’s “Prisons” or -Carceri theme – which were very fashionable subjects in the second half of the 18th century. Magnasco, who specialised in depicting the darker aspects of life, denounces here the tyranny with a rebellious energy, fuelled by Enlightenment thought.