Long description

Three figures occupy the centre of this scene. To the left, as the viewer sees it, is a pale-faced woman, dressed simply but elegantly in a tall peaked black hat (with a veil falling down the back), a pale green top with an egg-white middle, and a pale red folded skirt that flows out to the floor. She is looking down at, and holding onto the head and shoulder, of a man. He is slightly lower and holds his hands out on either side in a gesture of defence. He is dressed in royal blue robes, with an embroidered cloak over his shoulders, and wears a golden crown on his head and a golden pouch around his waist. His mouth and eyes are wide open, as his head is being pulled back by the woman to expose his neck. A second man, dressed in the same-coloured pale red robe as the woman, and wearing a similarly shaped hat (this time egg-white with a golden cross), stabs the central figure in the neck with a knife held in his left hand. A four-poster bed, in the same royal blue as the robes of the central figure, is to the left of the group and a door on the right, which opens out to an outdoor scene with a city and its walls in the far distance.