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co-dot UK-forward slash plan. Taking up one side of Trafalgar Square in the heart of London is the National Gallery.

Tourists mill around on its steps all year long, staring up at Nelson on his column and debating

whether or not they ought to make funny faces if the guards

at Buckingham Palace. But if you climb past the tourists on the steps, sending pigeons flying

as you go and go inside the gallery's ornate marble entrance hall,

then a hush will fall. Turn right through the first door and you'll be face to face with one of the most dramatic and enduring images in European art.

The execution of Lady Jane Gray by Paul Delarosh. It's gigantic, full of bright colours and deep shadows.

On one side of the painting is the executioner wearing ruby red tights and leaning on an axe.

axe. On the other side, two ladies in waiting have already collapsed with grief.

In the centre, in a dazzling white dress with her hair falling over her shoulder and a

blindfold over her eyes is Lady Jane Grey, the nine-day queen. Jane has been calm until this final moment when

blindfolded and kneeling she has reached forward to put her neck on the

executioner's block but she's been unable to find it.

Where is it? What shall I do? She is reported to have said.

Now, as this painting shows, her hands are being guided towards it by the lieutenant of the tower.

There's so much power and powerlessness, I suppose, in this image of a young person

roping for the executioner's block pleading for help.

It's easy to see why it has endured and come to define Lady Jane Grave for so many.

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