Based on Goya’s “The 3^rd of May 1808” depicting Napoleon’s soldiers executing Spanish nationalists, this painting references the massacre of defenseless “infidels” and clerics by Islamic State operatives.

According to the New York Post and a number of independent reports, hundreds of captives were marched into the desert and summarily executed by IS militants. In this painting, as in Goya’s original, the central figure faces his executioners...unlike the usual IS practice of shooting bound and defenseless victims in the back of the head.

The painting further references the wholesale destruction of religious and cultural icons, in particular, the venerated Prophet Younis (Jonah) Mosque built in the 8thC.  IS operatives also demolished numerous cultural sites including the Shrine of Prophet Shayth (Seth), torched 11 churches and monasteries out of 35 scattered across the city of Mosul and went on to destroy statues of poets, literary and historical figures much cherished by the inhabitants of Mosul.

         After