This rare oil on copper painting, probably produced as a devotionalrepresentation in a major Iberian workshop, depicts the martyrdomof three Jesuit Priests in late 16th century Japan. Of fine qualityand defined by firm and fast brushstrokes and vibrant colours,it accurately replicates a contemporary print by the renownedNetherlandish engraver Schelte Adamsz. Bolswert (1586–1659), activein Amsterdam, Haarlem and Antwerp, after a drawing by the artistAbraham van Diepenbeeck (1596–1675), a pupil of Pieter Paul Rubens(1577–1640) in Antwerp. A copy of such print, engraved between1627, the year of the Martyr’s beatification, and 1654, since that inhis five final years Bolswert engraved exclusively for Rubens, belongsto the Rijksmuseum collection, in Amsterdam (inv. RP–P–BI–2563).Of the twenty-six Martyrs (Nihon Nijūroku Seijin in Japanese)executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki, a Japanese Catholic stronghold,on February 5th, 1597, mostly Franciscans Friars, the artistsingled out the martyrdom scene of the three local Jesuit Priests.Of these, Paulo Miki, or Pauro Miki in Japanese, born near Osakainto a wealthy Japanese family in 1564, and educated at the Azuchi and Takatsuki Jesuit Seminaries, was a respected preacher creditedwith many Buddhist conversions, and the most celebrated ofthe whole group, which is listed in the General Roman calendaras Paulo Miki and Companions. The two other martyred Jesuitswere Diego Kisai (b. 1533), formerly Ichikawa Kisaemon, and JoãoSoan of Gotō (b. 1578), born of Christian parents in one of theGotō archipelago islands.Once arrested, the three had their left earlobes cut off, andwere forced to walk the six hundred miles between Miyako, presentday Kyoto, and Nagasaki. While martyred by having his cheststabbed by a spear, Miki preached his last sermon from the crossand forgave his executioners. Together with their twenty-threecompanions, the three Jesuits were beatified on September 14th,1627, by Pope Urban VIII (r. 1623–1644), and canonised on June8th, 1862, by Pope Pius IX (r. 1846–1878).The painting, identically to the printed prototype, illustratesthe moment in which Miki, to the right of the painting andalready crucified, has his chest stabbed by the soldier’s spear, as Christ himself had been by the roman soldier Longinus; Kisai, tothe left background, is lifted on his cross; and Soan, to the left, stillbeardless, is being knocked down by a soldier to be tied to his. Thecomposition is surmounted by hovering angels carried by clouds,which crown Miki, the greatest hero of Japan’s first Christiancentury, with a laurel wreath.With evident intentionality, the painter departs from theprinted composition by omitting the laurel wreaths destined toKisai and Soan, the palm that the first angel presents to Miki, and both the soldiers and the ropes that lift the crucified Kisai. Theseparticularities reinforce the predominance attributed to Miki, eminentpreacher who died on the cross aged thirty-three.A rare and powerful subject in the history of missionaryactivity in Asia, and of Jesuit presence in Japan, this painting isan exceptional testimony to the persecution of Japanese Catholicsand their growing social and political relevance, to the antagonismof the local Buddhist authorities, and to the European devotion forthese Christian Martyrs from faraway lands.
HMC