Paintings depicting scenes from European history

[Ferran]

Battle of Stamford Bridge (September 25, 1066)

Author: Peter Nicolai Arbo
Year: ?
Location: ?

[Señor Malo]

Battle of tannenberg 15.07.1410
Matejko
Nat. Museum of Warsaw

[Galaico]

Los Comuneros, Padilla, Bravo y Maldonado en el Patíbulo.
Antonio Gisbert, 1860.


A sad day for our country.

[Ferran]

The Baptism of Clovis (496)

Author: Master of Saint Gilles
Year: 1500
Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington

[Ferran]

Vivant Denon Replacing El Cid's Remains in their Tombs (1808)

Author: Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard
Year: 1811
Location: Musée Antoine-Lecuyer, St Quentin



Dominique-Vivant Denon (1747-1825) was a French painter, printmaker, illustrator and author. A diplomat under the ancien régime, he served Napoleon as supervisor of the scholars sent with his Egyptian campaign, and afterwards as director of the Musée Napoleon (Louvre). As organizer of the Salon exhibitions under the empire he had great powers of patronage and largely dictated the programmes of the pictures of the Napoleonic campaigns painted by Gros and others. His taste was eclectic and he also encouraged young artists, such as Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard.

Denon had a passion for collecting relics of the great - bones of Abelard, a tooth of Voltaire, whiskers from Henri IV's moustache - and Fragonard depicts him replacing in its tomb, after an evidently minute examination, the skull of the semi-legendary eleventh-century Spanish hero El Cid. In a subtly edited form, this referred to events during the French siege of the Spanish city of Burgos in 1808, when a regiment of dragoons, hoping to find gold and jewels, destroyed El Cid's monument in San Pedro de Cardena near the city. The French governor of Castille, appalled at this sacrilege, salvaged what he could of the remains and built a new monument in Burgos, but not before he had presented Denon with a parcel of the great man's bones. Far from replacing them where they belonged, Denon kept them for the rest of his life.

[Ferran]

Allegory on the Abdication of Emperor Charles V in Brussels, 25 October 1555

Author: Frans Francken II
Year: c. 1620
Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam



Charles V, seated on his throne, is stretching out his hands to his brother Ferdinand, on the left, and his son Philip, on the right. With this gesture of abdication, Germany passed to Ferdinand and Spain and the Netherlands to Philip. The women bearing standards symbolize the Emperor's Dutch, Spanish and Italian possessions. Charles V is depicted as ruler of the world, with women representing Europe, America and India and Neptune the oceans. Charles' motto was 'Plus Ultra' (= Further Yet).

[Ferran]

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (February 12, 1554)

Author: Paul Delaroche
Year: 1833
Location: National Gallery, London



Anglomania was in fashion in France in the 1820s and 1830s. Interest in British history, fuelled by the novels of Sir Walter Scott, was further stimulated by parallels drawn between recent events in France and the turbulent accounts of Tudors, Stuarts and the Civil War. The pictorial representation of British history may have been pioneered in Britain, but it was the Frenchman Paul Delaroche who gained a European reputation with the grand scenes drawn from it which he exhibited at the annual Paris Salon between 1825 and 1835. Popularised through mass-produced engravings, these set pieces, combining ostentatious antiquarianism with the pseudo-realism of bourgeois melodrama, in turn influenced the painters of national history in mid-Victorian Britain.

The painting depicts the last moments on 12 February 1554 in the life of the seventeen-year old Jane Grey, a great granddaughter of Henry VII who was proclaimed Queen of England upon the death of young King Edward VI, a Protestant like herself. She reigned for nine days in 1553, but, through the machinations of the partisans of Henry VIII's Catholic daughter, Mary Tudor, she was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death in the Tower of London.

Delaroche, who based the painting on a sixteenth-century Protestant martyrology, has falsified the historical account the better to appeal to his contemporaries. Lady Jane Grey, a humanist-educated young married woman, was in fact executed out of doors. Attended by two gentlewomen, probably no less stoical than she, she resolutely made her own way to the block. She could not have worn a white satin dress of nineteenth-century cut with a whalebone corset, and her hair would have been tucked up, not streaming down over her shoulders. But a painting cannot be judged by the criteria of historical accuracy. Much more applicable to this particular picture are the standards of popular melodrama and tableau vivant.

As on a stage, the heroine gropes her way towards the audience, gently guided by the elderly Constable of the Tower whose massive, dark, male presence acts as a foil to her own. A spotlight trained on her from above complements the dim stage lighting, reflecting from her immaculate dress and the straw which spills over into the front row of the stalls. The emotions of each actor are carefully delineated and distinguished, and we are left in no doubt as to the character of each even of the lady in the background who turns her back on the terrible sight.

[Ferran]

The Battle of Alexander (Battle of Issus - 333 BC)

Author: Albrecht Altdorfer
Year: 1529
Location: Alte Pinakothek, Munich



This is the most famous painting of Altdorfer. Its subject is the victory of the young Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. over the Persian army of King Darius in the battle of Issos. The battle in fact took place in Turkey, however, on this painting it is shown in the rocky environment of the Alps with German cities in the background.

The viewer, endowed with telescopic vision, witnesses the battle and the cosmic landscape. The ebb and flow of battle makes it difficult initially to distinguish the two sides. Altdorfer dressed the Macedonians like German knights and landsknechts (mercenary foot-soldiers), while the Persian warriors sport turbans and exotic attires. Hundreds of riders and foot-soldiers skirmish within sight of their battle standards. Darius' chariot, with mounted steel blades, cuts a path through the throng. Alexander, riding on Bucephalus, and some of his knights are in close pursuit. Darius escaped but at great cost: according to the tablet above, 100.000 Persian soldiers and 10.000 riders died. Although the actual toll was lower, Darius' army was decimated and his family was captured.

[Youenn]

Entry Of The Crusaders Into Constantinople (12 April 1204)

Author : Delacroix
Year : 1840
Location : Musée du Louvre, Paris

[Youenn]

The Feast Of Attila

Author : Mór Than
Year : 1870
Location : Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest

[Ferran]

Pope Alexander III Reconciles with Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1177)

Author: Francesco Salviati
Year: 1562
Location: Scala Regia, Vatican Palace, Rome

[Ferran]

Testamento de Isabel la Católica (Queen Isabella's Will - October 12, 1504)

Author: Eduardo Rosales
Year: 1864
Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid



This canvas afforded Eduardo Rosales, whose many problems and illness made his artistic life less than perfect, definite recognition, and it was only at the end of his life that his worth was truly appreciated. This canvas earned him first prize -and the sale of the canvas to the State- at the National Exposition in 1864. He also presented it in Paris where it earned him the First Medal and the title of Knight of the Legion of Honour. When Rosales was searching for a theme for his entry for the National Exposition he wanted to "find a matter of great importance in our history", which turned out to be the will that the Catholic queen left upon her death, considered the best testament to her character and to her political philosophy. Isabella appears on her deathbed, with canopy and curtains, dictating to her seated scribe the contents of her will. Sitting in a chair, bent over and defeated, is king Ferdinand, with their daugther and heiress, Princess Juana, known as "La Loca" (the Mad). In the group on the right is the covered figure of Cardinal Cisneros, who would later become the Regent of Castile.

[Youenn]

Battle of Auray (29 September 1364)

Author : Pierre Le Baud
Year : ~XVe
Location : Pariz



The Battle of Auray took place on September 29, 1364 at the Breton town of Auray (An Alre in breton). This battle was the decisive confront of the Breton War of Succesion, a part of the Hundred Years' War.
In the battle, which began as a siege, duke John de Montfort helped by English forces commanded by Sir John Chandos, defeated his rival Charles of Blois, seconded by the French.
At the beginning of 1364, after the failure of the negotiations of Evran, Montfort, with the assistance of John Chandos, came to attack Auray, which had been in the hands of Franco-Bretons since 1342. He entered the town of Auray and besieged the castle.
Without supplies of food, the besieged agreed to surrender the place, if help did not arrive before Michaelmas (September 29).
On September 27, Charles of Blois was east of the abbey of Lanvaux. Bertrand du Guesclin, who commanded the vanguard of the French troops, was in Brandivy.
On the 28th, they were installed on left bank of river, before the castle. To avoid being caught between the castle and the French Army, Montfort evacuated Auray and took a position facing the enemy, on the slope of the right bank of the river.
On the 29th, attempts at agreement having failed, Charles ordered the attack. His army crossed the river and lined up facing south. Montfort followed the movement and lined up facing north.

The Battle
The battle began with a short skirmish between the French arbalesters and the English archers. Then the men-at-arms engaged without seeking to maneuver. It was a bloody combat, because all wanted this battle to be decisive and put an end to this long and cruel war. Moreover, the instruction was given on both sides not to give quarter to captives.
Each Anglo-Breton body was attacked, one after the other, but the reserves restored the situation. On the other hand the right wing of the Franco-Breton driven back and, not being supported by the reserves, was folded up towards the center. The left wing folded in its turn and the troops of Charles of Blois took flight. Charles was killed by an English soldier, obeying the instruction given. Du Guesclin, having broken all his weapons, was obliged to surrender to Chandos.

Consequences
This victory put an end to the war of succession and by the treaty of Guérande, in 1365, the king of France recognized John of Montfort as duke of Brittany.

[Ferran]

The Donation of Charlemagne (774)

Author: Taddeo Zuccari
Year: 1564
Location: Scala Regia, Vatican Palace, Rome



The Lombard king Desiderius quarreled with Hadrian, bishop of Rome, over ownership of cities from the former exarchate of Ravenna. Charlemagne conquered the Lombard kingdom, captured its capital (Pavia), and proclaimed himself king of the Franks and Lombards. By making himself king of the Lombards, Charlemagne contravened the Donation of Constantine. But the pope got his cities.

Charlemagne spent Easter in Rome, where Pope Hadrian greeted him with the honors formerly bestowed on the exarch. Hadrian asked Charlemagne to confirm the Donation of Pepin, and Charlemagne complied, recognizing Hadrian as ruler of two thirds of the Italian peninsula. (Charlemagne’s act is sometimes referred to as the Donation of Charlemagne.)

[Ferran]

The Massacre at Chios (1822)

Author: Eugène Delacroix
Year: 1824
Location: Musée du Louvre, Paris



A spectacular illustration of the enthusiasm aroused amongst the romantic youth by the revolt of the Greeks against the Turks, the Massacre at Chios was directly inspired by the savage Turkish repression of the population of the island of Chios in April 1822. The critics at the Salon of 1824 received this fine painting very unfavourably. Delacroix had been inspired by Constable's Hay-Wain, which was exhibited at the same Salon, reworking the landscape background with a vibrant touch.

Horrified by the massacres perpetrated in Greece by the Sublime Porte, Delacroix denounced this crime against humanity - this genocide. His denunciation took immediate form in The Massacre of Chios; his gesture parallels that of his fervent admirer, Picasso, in his representation of the massacre at Guernica. Delacroix depicted a landscape racked with fire, stretching desolately behind a group of prisoners awaiting execution. The Massacre is all but a manifesto in its liberated expression of light and atmosphere through colour; after it, 19th century painting could never be the same again.