Zeno, Chancellor of Venice, executes Virginie (Juliette, VI, fig. 58)

Juliette, who is in Italy, has founded her own brothel in Venice. She has met the Chancellor of the Republic, Zeno. Together, they prepare an orgy according to the wishes of the man of law. To this end, he has the lover and father of a woman, Virginie, beheaded, even though he had promised to spare their lives in exchange for her charms. She is thus forced to endure the caresses of the libertines before she even has a chance to enjoy herself, dispossessed of her own body. She then realizes their betrayal too late: the executioner who killed her father and lover bursts in with their heads. The engraving depicts the human pyramid that is then formed.

The libertines force Virginie to hold up the heads of her lover and her father while their executioner positions himself beneath her. While taking Virginie from the front, he licks Juliette's genitals, who also presents her buttocks to Virginie. Zeno, recognizable by his long wig, is supposed to be taking Virginie from behind. But for clarity's sake, the engraver omitted this detail from the image. This testifies to the complexity and implausibility of Sade's positions, which require perfect immobility to be sustained, something that is not really possible in the context of sexual practice and the very tight positions depicted. Similarly, how can Virginie, in this position, hold the heads of her lover and her father in her hands? The intensification of Virginie's torment takes precedence over the plausibility of the positions. The logic of fantasy takes over. Zeno touching Juliette's maids' buttocks and being whipped by an old woman participates in a pyramid of pleasure, a complex human chain, with Juliette at the top. This typically Sadian pyramidal arrangement ensures the pleasure of the group rather than that of a single subject.

The social positions of Zeno and his henchman spill over into the orgiastic setting: from judicial judge and executioner, they become libertine judge and executioner. Zeno keeps his judge's wig on during the orgy, which links the two spheres, public and private. But access to the public sphere is blocked: at the back left, the closed door indicates that the characters are confined to the enclosed space of libertine fantasy.