3-098-616 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Imprisonment of Lanuza, 1858. Depiction of the moment when Juan de Lanuza (1564-1591), Fifth Chief Justice of Aragon, was arrested and executed in 1591 by order of King Philip II, whose troops, under the command of Alonso de Vargas, had entered Zaragoza. This episode is recorded in the catalogue of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1858: "When the Justice descended to where Juan de Velasco was secretly waiting, which was at the foot of the stairs, he approached him and, in a very polite manner, like a gentleman and a seasoned soldier, told him to surrender to prison, that His Majesty so commanded. The Justice was not disturbed, but said: 'No one can arrest me except the King himself,' and turning to his lieutenants, who were accompanying him to hear mass at San Juan del Puente, as was his custom, he asked them if it was so that they could arrest him... and only one said: 'His Majesty can do anything,' and at this they surrounded him, in the year 1591."