Francisco Rizi

Francisco Rizi (9 April 1614 – 2 August 1685) was a Spanish painter.

In 1683, Rizi made the oil painting entitled Auto de fe en la plaza Mayor de Madrid. In 2016, a copy of it hung in the Council of Elders' meeting room, where councilwoman Ellen Kaye erroneously dated the piece to 1492.

Gallery

• 
  Francisco Rizi's Auto de Fe en la plaza Mayor de Madrid
• 
  Auto de Fe en la plaza Mayor de Madrid in the Council of Elders' meeting room
• 
  close up of Auto de Fe en la plaza Mayor de Madrid

Behind the scenes

Rizi's painting used in the film is a stylized version of his actual artwork. Its most glaring difference is the replacement of the central, fenced-off, open-air court with the execution stakes shown in Lino Khay's concept art for the film. The partial green crest with gold writing on the right hand bleacher in the original work is also missing.

Further, it is not a representation of the film's location of the auto-da-fe, nor of any of the characters in that scene. As clearly stated in the title, the area depicted is Plaza Mayor in Madrid, not Seville as shown in the film, and instead features King Charles II, Queen Marie Louise d'Orléans, and queen mother Mariana of Austria in the background presiding over an auto-da-fe on 30 June 1680, with Grand Inquisitor Diego Sarmiento Valladares standing on the ground just left of their box holding a crozier. According to Alguacil Mayor (Chief Justice) José del Olmo, the stage architect and an Inquisition informant, the ceremony lasted all day, as recorded in great detail in his book, Relación histórica del auto general de fe, que se celebró en Madrid Este Año de 1680.

In the movie novelization, the painting was correctly dated to 1680, with Alan Rikkin observing to Ellen that the queen looked too old to be Isabella I.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed (film) (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: The Official Movie Novelization (mentioned only)