Peter-and-Paul is the original fortress of St. Petersburg constructed by Peter the Great on the shores of Neva River for the sake of defending the newly founded city. Today, it houses several museums and curiosities. One of them is the museum of medieval torture primarily focused on judicial corporal punishment in Europe and Russia in the late medieval and early modern period. Like many similar establishments, it contains both historic artifacts and wax models. Some of the latter are so realistic that they could be used in film and photography.

I felt particularly inspired by one specimen that was meant to illustrate a Russian criminal with facial branding indicating the types of crimes of which he was convicted. So I sketched him: