De Bry Workshop, Petrus Manchossa Tribus Furbius Justiciam Administrat (Pedro Mendoza's Band Administers Justice), 1599. Engraving; 13 x 9¼ in. Gift of the Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer, 2000.378.

height: 13 in, 33.0200 cm; width: 9 1/4 in, 23.495 cm; mat height: 20 in, 50.8000 cm; mat width: 16 1/16 in, 40.7988 cm

Top right corner in graphite : De Bry 1590

Mayer Center, Latin American Art

Latin American Art

In 1535, during his military expedition to establish a colony in Río de la Plata, Pedro de Mendoza and his men ran short on supplies. Desperately hungry, three soldiers stole a horse and butchered it for food. For this crime they were hanged. This engraving from part eight of Theodor de Bry’s America (1599) shows the three men in the foreground hanging from the gallows as soldiers cut them down limb by limb. The soldier at the center of the scene carries the legs of the unfortunate prisoners off to a tent to be cooked and eaten, such was the desperation in Mendoza’s camp. In the background the three soldiers can be seen capturing and butchering the horse that would lead to their deaths.

– Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2022