Sword and Paintbrush: Scenes of Battle in Western Art

War has been an integral part of the human experience since before recorded history. Naturally, then, it has found its way into the arts. The Iliad, one of the earliest existing pieces of Western literature, is a war story about warrior-heroes. It took to visual art works just as quickly, or maybe even earlier, with images, for example, of the ancient Mesopotamian god-kings atop piles of defeated enemies.

From this sampling of artworks from different times and places in Western history, we can see just a few of the roles that combat has played in art. It can function as social commentary or to reinforce social and political roles, but one thing remains the same. The nature of conflict in art always takes on the perceptions of the culture creating it. Other prevalent (though not universal) themes will emerge from these works, such as order and the focus on individual warriors or leaders. Glorification of the winning side, often associated metaphorically if not directly with the culture surrounding the artwork is extremely common, and it is not until after the World Wars that negative portrayals of one's own people become commonplace. In nearly all war art, though, contemporary understandings and values show through in depictions of combat.

Unknown artist, Terracotta volute-krater

ca. 450 B.C., Terracotta red-figure, Metropolitan Musuem of Art, 07.286.84

The artwork on this vase is dominated by an Amazonomachy, a battle between Greeks and Amazons. The combat is very orderly and appears almost as a series of duels rather than a mass of troops, which is very much in line with the ancient Greek warrior ethos and their fear of chaos. The Amazon warrior-women often represented foreign cultures in Greek thought, especially eastern nations, and art depicting their battles with Greek warriors were very common in the fifth century BC. Triumphs over the Amazons celebrated Greek dominance over foes such as the Scythians and Persians. This can be seen in the Persian gear the Amazons are garbed in on this vase, and this is an example of battle art celebrating victory in a clash of cultures.

Jean Pasquier Grenier, The Battle with the Sagittary and the Conference at Achilles' Tent
ca. 1470–90, Wool warp, Metropolitan Musuem of Art, 52.69

This tapestry at the tail end of the Middle Ages shows a classical scene from the Trojan War depicted in a very medieval fashion. The Greek and Trojan warriors all appear like European knights, the military and social elite of the era, with highly individualized armor and patterns resembling the personal heraldry prominent among the upper classes. No common footmen are present anywhere in the scene. Characters such as Achilles and Hector are highlighted with an array of gold accents, and their names are often inscribed on their armor or clothes. This presents a very stylized picture of war that glorifies the ruling elites as well as making an ancient trope more palatable to contemporary audiences.

Pieter van der Heyden, The Battle about Money
c.a. 1570, Engraving, Metropolitan Musuem of Art, 26.72.40

This engraving is out of the ordinary for its time, as the artist is clearly making a social or political commentary on war for profit. Money bags, bank pots, and strongboxes hack at each other in a crudely caricatured depiction of brutal violence, bleeding coins and gold bars instead of blood. Most tellingly, the text at the bottom informs us that the grappling hooks seen on the flags indicate that the motivating factor is greed, commonly perceived as one of the biggest vices at the time. Whether a comment on a specific war, perhaps one waged by the mercenary armies that were in military fashion at the time, or wars in general, the engraving is departing from normal tradition to portray purely the evils of a war for profit.

Francisco de Zurbaran, The Battle between Christians and Moors at El Sotillo
ca. 1637–39, Oil on canvas, Metropolitan Musuem of Art, 20.104

This painting shows, in very unambiguous terms, an act of divine intervention clearly favoring the victors of a battle. The story is that of a night battle in the 1300's, when a seemingly miraculous burst of light revealed concealed Moorish troops, allowing for a Spanish victory. The painting, which hardly even shows the enemy, portrays the victors- not just the Spanish but Christendom as a whole- as recipients of God's divine favor. As a legacy of the crusading spirit European Christians often saw themselves as agents of God's justice upon the "heathen" Muslims, and this piece displays that sentiment with little room for imagination.

 

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Battle of Vercellae
1725–29, Oil on canvas, Metropolitan Musuem of Art, 65.183.3

This is the centerpiece for this exhibition. The piece is grand and dramatic, with a strong sense of action and a very disordered composition. The figures are not dressed in either contemporary clothes or in historically accurate gear; instead they show the sort of stylized armor and loose, billowing robes common to most Renaissance history paintings. The chaotic, individual nature of the combat focuses on the magnificence of the individual warriors. The casting of victorious figures in light and the defeated foes in shadow glorifies the Roman victors, and through them their Venetian descendants. This seems the archetype for how battles are commonly used in art: to magnify the victory and, by casting contemporary sensibilities onto the subject, the culture creating the work.

 

 Conrad Marca-Relli, The Battle

1956; Oil cloth, tinted canvas, enamel paint, and oil on canvas; Metropolitan Musuem of Art, 56.203

In this piece Marca-Relli essentially condenses the famous series on Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello into one painting. Unlike the other abstract artists of his day, he doesn't avoid representation, although as abstraction it still may not be immediately recognizable. Abstraction is a perfect medium through which to display the chaos of battle, which has been a common theme in nearly all of the other works in this exhibition. This piece denies the individual warrior in favor of the crowd, and the nature of abstract art- an increasingly popular medium for those who saw it as a reaction against traditional art forms support outdated ideas- makes even the crowd indistinct an unclear, certainly lacking any kind of glorification such as that seen in the other works displayed.

 

-  Chris Dillon