#penitential garment

In this fictional scene, a man disguised as a friar attempts to rescue a heretic woman condemned by the Spanish Inquisition, as indicated by the penitential garment, or sambenito, hiding under the habit she wears. The robe belonged to her jailer, who is portrayed behind her, bound and gagged with rosary beads. This painting has been interpreted as a testimony of the anti-Catholic sentiment prevalent in England during the mid-nineteenth century and a declaration of the artist against the atrocities committed in history in the name of religion.