Evisceration of St. Erasmus
Purchased on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund with the assistance of the Fellows, 1963
Erasmus (also known as St. Elmo) was an Italian bishop during Diocletian's persecution of the Christians around the turn of the fouth century. He lies on a raised board, clothed only in his miter and a loincloth. His arms are bound painfully beneath the board while two executioners wind his intestines around a spool turned by spoked wheels. At right, the bald executioner in crimson has a long curved knife at his belt – probably the blade used to slit the belly of the saint. In the border, and of unknown significance, is a boy riding a hobbyhorse and wearing a conical hat made of tied green sticks and a collar of similar material made into long spikes.