the execution and its message From Golgotha an important model for the condemned and her preparation and death often returned to and sometimes questioned was the story of the criminal in Lk 23, later identified as St Dismas, the good thief, crucified together with Jesus, who asked Jesus to remember him and in reply received the promise to be in paradise with Jesus.399 St Dismas is said to have been very popular in the Baroque era, especially in Bavaria and Austria, and particularly in Graz. Further, to prepare the condemned he was very often presented as someone to identify with, both in Catholic and Lutheran areas.400 In the Swedish Rituals of 1614 and 1693 in the latter, however, in the first of the two alternatives – the good thief was a dominant motif in a text largely written by the Swedish reformer Olaus Petri, used to prepare the condemned and at their execution.401 St Dismas has been studied extensively, especially in late medieval art, by Christiane Klapisch-Zuber. For example she finds that in late medieval art there was a difference between east and west. In the art produced in the Byzantine empire St Dismas often is clearly placed in Paradise, while in the west he could rather be placed following Christ on the way there or waiting outside.402 Klapisch-Zuber also comments on her finding that in the north of the alps, particularly in Flanders and Germany, the art, in some contrast to the south, depicted a harsh judicial handling resulting in the explicit demonstration of the sufferance of Christ and the two criminals, which carried both judicial and theological messages, the former revolving around deterrence: ”Le public était invité à percevoir dans de telles œuvres la sévérité de la justice plûtot que la théologie de la conversion et du salut.”403 St Dismas was before the reformation seen as a saint both in east and west and he could therefore be the recipient of prayers to be delivered to God. However, his main role was as the example in the preparation of those soon to be executed. He had himself 399 Lk 23:39-43. 400 Merback 1999 p 26, 224, 264 sq, Klapisch-Zuber 2015 p 328 sq. 401 Hand-Bok 1772 p 187 sqq, Handbook 1614 fol 79 sqq, Olavus Petri 1915 p 362 sq. 402 Klapisch-Zuber 2015 p 31 sqq. 403 Klapisch-Zuber 2015 p 62, 65 sqq (quotation p 67) ’The public was invited to perceive in such works the severity of justice rather than the theology of conversion and salvation.’ 116
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