A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge (1852) is a painting by John Everett Millais. The long title is usually abbreviated to A Huguenot or A Huguenot on St Bartholomew's Day.
It depicts a pair of young lovers in an embrace. The familiar subject is given a dramatic twist because the "embrace" is in fact an attempt by the girl to get her beloved to wear a white armband, decl...
more
A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge (1852) is a painting by John Everett Millais. The long title is usually abbreviated to A Huguenot or A Huguenot on St Bartholomew's Day.
It depicts a pair of young lovers in an embrace. The familiar subject is given a dramatic twist because the "embrace" is in fact an attempt by the girl to get her beloved to wear a white armband, declaring his allegiance to Roman Catholicism. The young man gently pulls the armband off with the same hand with which he embraces the girl. The incident refers to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 when French Protestants (Huguenots) were massacred in Paris, leading to other massacres elsewhere in France. A small number of Protestants escaped from the city by wearing white armbands.
Millais had initially planned simply to depict lovers, but had been persuaded by his Pre-Raphaelite colleague William Holman Hunt that the subject was too...
less
