Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-john-everett-millais-bt-379" aria-label="More by Sir John Everett Millais, Bt" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir John Everett Millais, Bt</a>
Mercy St Bartholomews Day 1572
Presented by Sir Henry Tate 1894
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
armband
badge
beckoning
clothing and personal items
compassion
convent
cross
Crucifixion - passionflower
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
French Hugenots, massacre by Catholics, 1572
friar / monk
history
interiors
kneeling
man
nun
objects
passionflower
people
persecution
plants and flowers
pleading
recoiling
religious
religious
religious
religious
religious and ceremonial
restraining
rosary
social comment
society
standing
sword
symbols and personifications
weapons
woman
work and occupations
<p>This painting shows an imaginary incident during the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris, when thousands of Protestants were slaughtered by Catholics. Millais shows the pious devotion of a Catholic who is prepared to kill for his beliefs.</p><p>Although the subject is taken from  French history, in the nineteenth  century many British people viewed  the religious struggles between Protestants and Catholics as fundamental  to the development of national identity.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2008</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 July 2003 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
12 July 2003 – 28 September 2003
2003-09-28
2003-07-12
Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
25 October 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
2003-10-25
Dunedin Public Art Gallery (Dunedin, New Zealand)
http://www.dunedin.art.museum
14 May 2004 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
2004-05-14
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2003-07-12
The Pre-Raphaelite Dream: Paintings and Drawings from the Tate Collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
26 September 2007 – 26 October 2008
2008-10-26
7 June 2008 – 17 August 2008
2008-08-17
2008-06-07
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (Kitakyushu-City, Japan)
30 August 2008 – 26 October 2008
2008-10-26
2008-08-30
Bunkamura Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japan)
2007-09-26
Millais
Exhibition
15 February 2008 – 26 October 2008
2008-10-26
7 June 2008 – 17 August 2008
2008-08-17
2008-06-07
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art (Kitakyushu-City, Japan)
30 August 2008 – 26 October 2008
2008-10-26
2008-08-30
Bunkamura Museum of Art (Tokyo, Japan)
2008-02-15
Millais
Loan-out
30 November 2009 – 8 February 2010
2010-02-08
30 November 2009 – 8 February 2010
2010-02-08
2009-11-30
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
2009-11-30
Facets of History in the Mirror of XIXth Century European Art
Loan-out
Mercy: St Bartholomew’s Day, 1572
support: 1841 × 1308 mm

Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999962" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Sir Henry Tate</a> 1894
<p>The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> portrays an imaginary incident at the time of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris on 24 August 1572, when thousands of Protestants were slaughtered by Catholics. The subject itself was not new for Millais as he had treated it in 1852 in the painting, <i>A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's day refusing to shield himself from danger by wearing the Roman Catholic badge</i> (Makins Collection). In this work, Millais had portrayed the conflict in the form of an ill-fated love-affair between a Catholic and a Protestant, where the staunch Protestant is shown refusing the white cloth (the Roman Catholic badge) being tied around his arm by his Catholic lover. This act of refusal is an indication that he is prepared to die for his faith. In <i>"Mercy": St. Bartholomew's Day</i>,<i> </i> Millais shows the other side of the story involving the pious devotion of the Catholic who would kill for his beliefs. Millais's painting follows closely the requirements laid down prior to the massacre by the 'Order of the Duke of Guise', that Catholics had to follow:  'When the clock of the Palais de Justice shall sound upon the great bell at daybreak, then each good Catholic must bind a strip of white linen round his arm, and place a fair white cross in his cap'. This 'Order' was printed in the Royal Academy catalogue to accompany Millais's <i>A Huguenot</i>, mentioned above, when it was exhibited there in 1852. 

</p><p>In a gloomy interior, a man wearing a white arm-band, rosary beads around his neck, a crucifix fixed upon the brim of his hat and with his sword unsheathed, prepares himself for bloodshed. A Nun begs for '"Mercy"' on behalf of the hapless Protestants, but the man pulls her arm away and moves to follow the call to arms indicated by the Friar who beckons from the open doorway. The passion flowers and roses placed in the foreground appear overblown and withered. The passion flower was a recognised symbol for the suffering of Christ and was often used in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/v/victorian" title="Glossary definition for 'Victorian'"><span>Victorian</span></a> art to indicate a doomed love affair. Here, the wilting flowers indicate that the pious fervour of the Catholic will have a tragic end. Millais viewed <i>"Mercy" </i>as a serious example of his late work, but it was not well-received by the critics. When it was shown at the Royal Academy in 1887, one critic declared that 'Sir John Millais disappoints expectations' and that his figures offered 'little else but meaningless violence of gesture' (<i>Magazine of Art</i>, 1887, p.272). Millais himself was disappointed with it and confessed to the artist Briton Rivière: 'I have done the picture ... I am sometimes happy over it, but oftener wretched' (Millais, II, p.196). <br/><b><br/></b><b>Further reading:<br/></b>J.G. Millais,<i> The Life and Letters of Sir John Everett Millais</i>, II, London 1899.<br/>Russell Ash, <i>Sir John Everett Millais</i>, London 1996, reproduced pl.40 in colour. <br/>Tessa Murdoch, <i>The Quiet Conquest: The Huguenots 1685 to 1985</i>, exhibition catalogue, Museum of London, London 1985, p.314.

</p><p>Rebecca Virag<br/>February 2001</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>
This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> shows an imaginary incident during the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in Paris, when thousands of Protestants were slaughtered by Catholics. Millais shows  the pious devotion of a Catholic who is prepared to kill for his beliefs. </p>
<p>
 </p>
<p>
Although the subject is taken from <br/>
French history, in the nineteenth <br/>
century many British people viewed <br/>
the religious struggles between Protestants and Catholics as fundamental <br/>
to the development of national identity.</p>
Display caption
2008-07-30T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults armband badge beckoning clothing and personal items compassion convent cross Crucifixion - passionflower emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas French Hugenots, massacre by Catholics, 1572 friar / monk history interiors kneeling man nun objects passionflower people persecution plants and flowers pleading recoiling religious religious religious religious religious and ceremonial restraining rosary social comment society standing sword symbols and personifications weapons woman work and occupations