Home/Symbols/Wall of riflemen (backs turned)Wall of riflemen (backs turned) SymbolismAnonymized, collective force of the state; killing carried out by interchangeable functionaries.Common ThemesColonialism & empirePropaganda & ideologyMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Originality, authorship, and appropriationPower & authorityMortality & transience (memento mori)War & conflictLandscape & placeArtworks Featuring This SymbolThe Execution of Emperor MaximilianÉdouard Manet (1867–1868)Manet’s The Execution of Emperor Maximilian confronts state violence with a <strong>cool, reportorial</strong> style. The wall of gray-uniformed riflemen, the <strong>fragmented canvas</strong>, and the dispassionate loader at right turn the killing into <strong>impersonal machinery</strong> that implicates the viewer <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
