"Exhibition of the Royal Academy. The Seventy-Eighth. 1846." Art Union 8 (1 Jun. 1846), 171-189.

excerpt

No. 594. ‘Pisarro [sic] seizing the Inca of Peru,’ J. R. Millais. To the title of this excellent picture is appended an extract from "Luffman’s Chronology:"–"Pizarro himself advanced towards the Emperor, whom he took prisoner, while his soldiers, incited by Vincent de Valverde, massacred all that surrounded the Monarch." We regret that the position of this picture deprives us of the opportunity of inspecting its detail. It is a production of much excellence, and is more worthy of a favourable place than many that are better hung. The Emperor, as well as we can see, is reclining upon a kind of litter, and is thus seized by Pizarro: this is the main point of the work, around which all is confusion, pictured in the melée of Spaniards and Peruvians–groups of very spirited figures–drawn with accuracy and placed in relation to each other in a manner most efficiently to support the description. The composition is most judiciously managed; the principle figures are relieved against the sky, while the others are variously distributed, but all contributing to the entirety of the whole. The work is abundantly rich in colour.