Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc holding her live heart and pointing to heaven, locks the viewer’s gaze as her banner flies behind her. Joan of Arc, the virgin peasant girl, upon the instruction of Saint Catherine, the archangel Michael, and Saint Margaret, demands to be brought to Charles VII who then sends her to the siege of Orleans, boosting the morale of the troops and turning the tide of the Hundred-Years War. Her story proves the fallibility of church leaders and the high cost of entangling church and state.

Only decades after her capture by the Burgundians who turned her over to the English to be tried and burned at the stake, was France finally victorious. Tried for heresy for her “demonic” visions and blasphemy for wearing men’s clothing, she was originally spared certain death and given a life sentence in prison by the Catholic church if she stopped wearing men’s clothing. When she “relapsed,” they burned her alive. According to legend, her beating heart and ashes were cast into the Seine to avoid her remains being used as relics. Upon her death, it was clear a grave mistake had been made and they had burned a saint, although she was not canonized until nearly 500 years after her execution.

I chose to paint her this way, aflame and steadfast, holding her beating heart, because I wanted to show that society has not come very far, for we still punish the peacemakers, especially if they stand up against formidable and corrupt power, and even more so if they are not heteronormative.