The Duquesnoy brothers, Francois Andjerome, came from a family of famous artists and were themselves both noted sculptors during the early seventeenth century. They were also both homosexuals. Francois, the older and better known of the two, died in 1643. Eleven years later, Jerome - whose work included commissions for Philip IV of Spain and the empress of Russia - was arrested in Ghent, ii northern Belgium, for allegedly sodomizing two of his young male models. Despite his official standing as a court sculptor at Flanders, and despite the pleas of highly placed friends, including the Bishop of Trieste he was condemned to die. On September 28, 1654, by order of the court, he was lashed to a stake, strangled to death, and his body was then burned.