EPPH - Every Painter Paints Himself

The meditative officer on the right cocks his rifle even though his men have already fired, another visual inconsistency. He is an “artist” too, posed like a painter. His right hand with its thumb stretched is reminiscent of how a painter stretches his thumb to hold a palette while his other arm, like an artist’s, is poised over the unseen palette. His rifle, similar to the giant sword in Manet’s Boy with a Sword, is a metamorphic “paintbrush” loaded with symbolism. 

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The soldiers as a group execute Manet’s painting of three Mexicans. Manet intended the pun because he presents them facing the canvas as he did. All three men about to die represent Manet too because every painter paints himself. In support, each of their real names began with M like Manet’s and their legs form an M as well.

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The depiction of the Emperor in the middle, moreover, is a close resemblance of Manet himself as scholars have often noted without knowing why. See comparison at left. 

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The halo-like sombrero of the Emperor in the middle of a Trinity facing death suggests a great artist’s traditional Christomorphism despite Manet’s own lack of religious interest. As long noted with amazement, they have signs of stigmata on their  hands even before, it would seem, the rifles had fired. Death is, moreover, a common metaphor in art for the completion of a painting as the spectators acknowledge in part by looking over the wall to marvel at Manet’s most recent achievement.

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