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Engraving of a man raising a pole over a bound man stretched across a wooden rack, with a distant gallows and palm trees under a pale sky.

The Execution of Breaking on the Rack

A black-and-white engraving shows a standing man raising a long wooden pole above a prone man bound across a low wooden rack, with a gallows-like frame and palm trees in the distant landscape. Fine cross-hatched lines model the bodies and ground, and a small axe and a hat lie in the foreground.

Artist
William Blake
Date
1793
Medium
Source
Wikimedia Commons / Wikidata
Size
2866 × 4000 px
Download full size
Public domain · William Blake died 1827 and the work dates by 1793; public domain in the US and life+70 countries.
Rights checked 2026-11-05 · tier B · as stated by the source: CC0

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): William Blake, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

William Blake18th centuryengravingcross-hatchingmonochrome printhistorical printexecutionprone figurepunishmentgallowswilliam blakepalm trees

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