Paintings depicting scenes from European history

[Ferran]

Archduke Charles of Austria during the Battle of Aspern-Essling (May 21-22, 1809)

Author: Johann Peter Krafft
Year: 1856
Location: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna



In the Battle of Aspern-Essling (21 May – 22 May 1809), Napoleon attempted a forced crossing of the Danube near Vienna, but the French and their allies were driven back by the Austrians under Archduke Charles.

[Mediterraneo]

Juana la Loca

Author: Francisco Pradilla
Year: 1877
Location: Museo del Prado (Madrid)

[Mediterraneo]

El 2 de mayo de 1808 en Madrid, la lucha con los mamelucos

Author: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Year: 1814
Location: Museo del Prado (Madrid)

El 3 de Mayo de 1808 en Madrid, los fusilamientos en la montaña del Príncipe Pío

Author: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
Year: 1814
Location: Museo del Prado (Madrid)

[Ferran]

The Surrender of Seville (La Rendición de Sevilla - 1248)

Author: Francisco de Zurbarán
Year: 1634
Location: Duke of Westminster's Collection

[Ferran]

Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588 (Battle of Gravelines)

Author: Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg
Year: 1796
Location: National Maritime Museum, London



The Armada very nearly suffered a total catastrophe when unusually strong winds almost beached the fleet on the French and Flemish shorelines. The winds finally changed, however, sparing the Spanish an unmitigated disaster. They were able to rapidly resume formation, though in a more scattered pattern than before. The next day, the English attacked the Spanish fleet off Gravelines, France, in the only significant engagement of the confrontation. The Spaniards had been trained for seize-and-grapple tactics, which they had used effectively against a Turkish fleet in the 1571 Mediterranean Battle of Lepanto, in which the Spanish galleons were expected to pull alongside an enemy ship, grapple onto it, and then board and overwhelm the defenders. But the English ships employed their long-range guns to strike the Spanish ships from a distance, avoiding battle close-in. Both sides were able to fire salvos and damage the vessels of the other, but the English ships were able to do so faster and more accurately.

In spite of English advantages, the Battle of Gravelines itself was rather inconclusive. Both sides committed errors and wasted substantial ordnance; furthermore, the English exhausted their ammunition stores early and were unable to pursue the Armada ships as they regrouped. Ten or eleven Spanish vessels were damaged or sunken in the engagement, but many of these were among the least seaworthy in the Armada to begin with, and Medina-Sidonia's still generally intact squadrons were able to quickly resume their battle formations. Thousands of Spanish sailors had died, mostly of disease and exposure, but the Armada still posed a threat. Nevertheless, Medina-Sidonia decided that conditions were simply not conducive for a rendezvous with Parma at this point. The ships had already cut anchor at Calais and the tenuous lines of communication with Parma had been severed. He was not aware of the English lack of ammunition, and presumed that any further attempts to reassemble the Spanish fleet-in the absence of an effective port-would be too vulnerable to further English attack. Medina Sidonia therefore decided to call off further attempts at joining with Parma, and return to Spain by rounding the northern tip of Scotland.

[Ferran]

The Entrance of Joan of Arc into Orleans (8 May, 1429)

Author: Jean-Jacques Scherrer
Year: 1887
Location: Musée des Beaux-Arts, Orléans, France



The Siege of Orléans (1428 – 1429) marked a turning point in the Hundred Years' War between France and England. This was Joan of Arc's first major military victory and the first major French success to follow the crushing defeat at Agincourt in 1415. The outset of this siege marked the pinnacle of English power during the latter stages of the war. The city held strategic and symbolic significance to both sides of the conflict. The consensus among contemporaries was that the English regent John Plantagenet would succeed in realizing Henry V's dream of uniting all of England and France under English rule if Orléans fell. For half a year the English appeared to be winning. The siege collapsed nine days after Joan of Arc's arrival.

[Ferran]

Proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles (January 18th, 1871)

Author: Anton von Werner
Year: 1877
Location: ?



The German empire became a legal entity on 1 Jan 1871, but it still lacked executive bodies. After Wilhelm I showed his willingness to accept the imperial dignity on 18 Dec 1870, he announced that he accepted the crown on 14 Jan 1871 in a letter addressed to Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, who acted as spokesman of the princes and of the free cities. The proclamation of the new emperor took place in the Hall of Mirrors of the Versailles Palace on 18 Jan 1871 between 12 noon and 1 p.m. In the course of the meeting attended by the German ruling princes and nobility, military commanders, diplomats and officials, Wilhelm announced that he accepted the crown and Otto von Bismarck read out his appeal to the German nation (dated 17 Jan 1871). The ceremony culminated in the speech of Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden, who proclaimed Wilhelm the German Emperor (Deutscher Kaiser).

[Ferran]

Battle of Ostia (849)

Author: Raffaello Sanzio's assistants
Year: 1515
Location: Vatican Palace, Rome



The naval Battle of Ostia took place in 849 between the Muslims of southern Italy and a Christian league of Papal, Neapolitan, and Amalfitan, and Gaetan ships.

[Vityaz]

Battle of Kulikovo



The Battle of Kulikovo was fought by the Mongols and the Moskovians. The battle took place on September 8, 1380 at the Kulikovo Field near the Don River and resulted in a Moskovian victory.

[Galaico]

St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

Author: François Dubois
Year: 1572-84
Location: Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne



The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy in French) was a wave of Catholicmob violence against the Huguenots (French CalvinistProtestants), traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici, the mother of Charles IX. Starting on August 24, 1572, with the murder of a prominent Huguenot, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the massacres spread throughout Paris, and later to other cities and the countryside, lasting for several months. The exact number of fatalities will never be known, but several thousand, possibly tens of thousands, of Huguenots died in the violence.

[Ferran]

Discovery of the Body of King Louis the Second (1526)

Author: Bertalan Székely
Year: 1860
Location: Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest



Bertalan Székely was the most fastidious master of the style known as historicism. He harboured the idea of painting The Discovery of the Body of King Louis the Second already during the years he spent in Transylvania following his studies in Vienna. After having clarified the role of each element of the composition, he painted the great work in 1860 in Munich, where he was studying under Piloty. Working out the structure and the accent of colours in detail was of prime importance for Székely.

The last Hungarian king from the Jagello Dynasty, the young Louis II (1516-1526), was slain in the Battle of Mohács. His passing symbolizes the death of the nation and the beginning of the Turkish suzerainty which lasted 150 years. The gestures of respect for the dead as well as the white shroud, which contrast dramatically with the sombre atmosphere, work in unison to focus our attention on the tragic figure of the Hungarian king.

[Youenn]

Chouans preparing to ambush
Late-19th-century




Painting illustrating the relentlesse advance of the vendeans during the Virée de Galerne.

This is the name of the tragic epic that led the people of the Vendée on the roads of the West. In spite of the mass of stragglers, the Catholic and Royalist Army - reinforced by the Chouans from Brittany and Maine - won a series of victories. Their object was to take the port of Granville, and thus to be in a position to receive help from England. At Laval and Entrammes the royalists swept away Republican defences. But Granville proved impossible to take from the landward side. Without awaiting support from the English navy, the Vendeans attacked the town walls. It was a total failure. The British fleet appeared just as the Vendean army had struck camp. It was time to take the road back - a bloody route, for only 5 per cent of the Vendeans returned to their native parishes. The rest perished; cut down, shot, or worse. Hot on their heels followed the Republican cavalry, with orders to take no prisoners. In spite of this, the Vendeans won victories at Pontorson, Dol and Antrain. They headed south, intending to recross the Loire at Angers. Alas, the town which had rejoiced over the victory of the Catholic and Royalist Army a few months earlier was now strongly defended. Almost within sight of home, the Vendeans were pushed back northwards to Le Mans where, on 12 December 1793, they were defeated. On the 23rd, what remained of the army was massacred at Savenay. Westermann wrote to the Convention: "...there is no Vendée. It has perished, with its women and children, under our sword of freedom. // Following your orders, I have crushed the children under our horses' hooves, and massacred the women - they will bear no more children for those brigands. I have not taken a single prisoner."

[Strengthandhonour]

Giuseppe Garibaldi and Anita Garibaldi fleeing San Marino by unknown artist


Germanos blessing the flag of Agia Lavra by Theodoros Vryzakis.


Napoleon III at the battle of Solferino by Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier

[Ferran]

Conradin of Swabia and Frederick of Baden Being Informed of Their Execution in Prison in Naples (October 29, 1268)

Author: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
Year: 1790s
Location: Private collection



There are two earlier versions of this subject taken from Johann Jakob Bodmer's (698-1783) poem Conradin von Schwaben. Conradin, Duke of Swabia (1252-68), the last scion of the house of Hohenstaufen, was captured by Charles of Anjou after his defeat at the battle of Tagliacozzo in 1268, and subsequently beheaded with his friend Frederick of Baden. Conradin was a keen chess player, a game he saw as symbolic of the struggle for power. The painting depicts the moment when he and his friend are informed by the judge Bary of their impending execution. The young Duke of Flanders weeps at this news, but Conradin and Frederick display only irritation at the interruption of their chess game.