La campana di Huesca

The story on this canvas is medieval, but the painting is Spain looking hard at its own past in 1880. It illustrates a grim legend of Ramiro II of Aragon, a king pushed too far by rebellious nobles. He summons them one by one to admire a great bell he is casting, has each beheaded, and arranges their heads in a ring on the floor, the ringleader archbishop's head hung above as the clapper. Casado del Alisal paints the instant the king shows his work to a stunned court, in a stone cellar lit like a stage. Pictures on this scale were how Spanish artists made their name at the national exhibitions, and this one took its honours in 1881. The Prado owns it, though it has hung in Huesca's own town hall since 1950.