Well armed Pilgrims

Pilgrims Going To Church (1867) by the Anglo-American painter George Henry Boughton (1834-1905). Boughton painted here the famous Pilgrim Fathers in their best clothes but also well armed indicating that they were well aware of living in a dangerous new world.

A National Martyr

The execution of Matija Gubec in front of St. Mark's Church in Zagreb (1905) by the Croatian painter Oton Iveković (1869-1939). Matija Gubec was a leader of the Croatian-Slovenian peasant revolt 1573 and became later a symbol for the indepence movement in Croatia.

A National Saint

Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake (1843) by the German Romantic painter Hermann Anton Stilke (1803-1860). Stilke was a member of the very religious Nazarene movement and depicted here Joan of Arc in the style of a religious saint painting. To emphasize this intention the painting was part of a bigger Joan of Arc Triptych.

Westward Ho

Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way (1861) by the German American painter Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (1816–1868). This painting better known as "Westward Ho" decorates as a mural the United States Capitol Building.
It symbolizes Manifest Destiny, i.e. the belief that the United States was destined for Western expansion from the   Atlantic coast to the Pacific ocean.

Saint James the Moor-slayer

Saint James at the battle of Clavijo (1885) by the Spanish painter José María Casado del Alisal (1832-1886). In the Spanish legend Saint James miraculously appeared to fight for the Christiansduring the battle of Clavijo (844), and became therefore as Santiago Matamoros, or the Moor-slayer the national saint of Spain.
Interesting is that Casado del Alisal did here a kind of history painting instead of a religious one. In this manner he is assuring the "historical reality" of the legend.

God was watching

The Christianization of Poland (1889) by the Polish painter Jan Matejko (1838-1893). Above all it's a symbolic painting. People are plowing, cutting timber while others are being baptized and all is illuminated by the divine light from above.

Kind of Nature

Battle of Svolder (1883) by the Norwegian painter Otto Ludvig Sinding (1842-1909). Sinding depicted here the decisive battle which resulted in the independence of Norway. Quite normal work that far, but more interesting is that he was much more famous for his landscape paintings of the wild Lofoten Islands. And because of that, I think, his battle painting is much more about the sea in the North and the light there than about that battle itself.

A New Start

The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers by the Anglo-American painter George Henry Boughton (1834-1905). One of the great foundation myths of the United States. The men are pious but armed, few in a deserted hostile world. Looks nothing inviting at all, their new world.

A Tragically Capitulation

Vercingétorix surrendering to Caesar (1886) by the French history painter Henri-Paul Motte (1846-1922).

The proud Gallic chieftain is leaving the besieged Alesia in 52 BC to surrender to the Romans. Motte depicted here a national hero surrendering to a foreign superior machinery of war. So it’s probably a reference to the French capitulation to the Prussians in 1871.

A Bloody Struggle

Saragossa 10 February 1809 by the British painter Harold Hume Piffard (1895-1938).

Piffard depicts here the bloody struggle in a church during the siege a Saragossa. The defending Spanish priests are showing even more bloodlust than their French adversaries. And to me it seems that the priest in center is not praying peace or forgiveness, it looks much like some kind of exorcism.

Alone and Lost in the Forest

The Chasseur in the Forest (1814) by the German painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). Despite it doesn’t look like very patriotic at first glance it’s eminently that. There is a French soldier (one of Napoleon’s occupants) lone and lost in a dark German forest. So the painting is suggesting that there are other powers than simple soldiers that will help to free Germany from her oppressors.

A National Icon

The Prophetess Libuse (1893) by the Czechoslovakian painter Karel Vitezlav Mašek (1865–1927). Libuse is the legendary founder of Prague and the ancestor of the Přemyslid dynasty and the Czech people as whole.

This Art Nouveau painting reminds of stained glass in churches and is therefore a good modern interpretation of a national myth.

Tragical End of a Hero

Miranda in prison (1896) by the Venezuelan painter Arturo Michelena (1863-1898). Miranda, who was a student of the famous French history painter Jean-Paul Laurens, depicts here one of the founders of Latin American Liberty.

Sebastián Francisco de Miranda was a Venezuelan revolutionary and is considered as a forerunner of Simón Bolívar. After is revolution had failed he died in a Spanish prison.

Patriotic Death

The Swiss painter Konrad Grob (1828-1904) depicted here the heroic deed and death of his legendary compatriot Arnold Winkelried in the Battle of Sempach in 1386.

According to legend, the Swiss could not break the close ranks of the Habsburg knights. Winkelried threw himself into the pikes with the cry "a breach for liberty" facilitating the victory of the Swiss. It’s typical 19th century painting but nevertheless it’s well done, confronting very dynamically the poor armed and clad but energetic Swiss farmers with the Austrian wall of steel.

Patriotic Icon

The Departure of Jeanne d'Arc

Entrance of Jeanne d'Arc at Orleans

These two romantic paintings of the national icon Jeanne d’Arc are by the French painter Jean-Jacques Scherrer (1855-1916). Scherrer did them in the 1870s after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, when he left his beloved Alsace which was lost in the war.
So Jeanne is here a kind of patriotic consolation and hope for a victory in the future.

Norwegian King

The crowning of Olav I Tryggvason of Norway (1860) by the Norwegian painter Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831-1892).

Arbo was a romantic painter who specialized in historical and mythological subjects. Here he depicted one of the greatest kings in Norwegian history. This was especially important in the 19th century when Norway was struggling for her independence from Sweden.

The Iwo Jima Flag

The photo "Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima" taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal is probably the most reproduced photograph of all time. It was the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and it became in the United States one of the most important national icons.

Nevertheless it’s a photograph and no painting! But the crucial point is, that it depicts not the first flag-raising. This happened some hours earlier and was photographed by Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery.

Later there was a big discussion and Rosenthal was accused that he "could not resist reposing his characters in historic fashion." Meaning that he arranged his photograph like a history painting! Rosenthal and all the surviving witnesses always denied that he did so. But they became all famous because of the photograph and had therefore a lot to loose.

But anyhow that’s not very important in our context. Our crucial question has to be: Why became Rosenthal’s photograph an icon and a million seller and that of Lowery was nearly forgotten? The answer is simple: Because Rosenthal shot a perfect history painting whether accidentally or not. It fulfilled all the esthetic requirements (formed by 19th century paintings) but could be accepted as "realistic".

The poster of the film "Flags of Our Fathers" (2006) by Clint Eastwood is even optimizing this history-painting-effect by adding to the dramatic action and the pyramidal group the typical illumination. It’s clear, Eastwood refers to a painting, a monument, an icon, not to a realistic photograph.
Recently appeared the painting "September 11th" by the American contemporary artist Jamie Wyeth. Now the history painting is quoting a photograph, which was quoting history paintings. The circle is closing. Once history painting pretended to be realistic and failed, now it seems that it returns more to the roots, wanting to be an icon.

Problematic Allegories

An allegory is a figurative of representation of something abstract. Allegories became very popular in Renaissance and Baroque painting. Normally virtues, feelings or moods like Justice, Fidelity or Melancholy were represented by young women. Later with the discovery of the world these women were also used to symbolize the new continents. Europa was just known, now she was accompanied by the new invented Asia, America and Africa.

Europe Supported By Africa and America (1796). A typical 19th century illustration by William Blake (1757–1827).

Allegories as national symbols became popular not before the rising nationalism as a reaction on the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

Germania and Italia (1811-28). This peaceful allegory is by the German Romantic painter Johann Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869) one of the founders of the Nazarene movement. Both people, the Germans and the Italians, were suppressed and far away from forming nations. Without nations, nationalists from many kingdoms were supporting each other.

But this harmony passed by in some decades. Here Germania (1849) by the German painter Christian Köhler (1809-1861) is called to arms by Justice. And she’s not only reaching for the sword, but also for the imperial crown.

Hardly surprising that with the beginning of the First World War the once so peaceful Germania has changed to an aggressive Valkyrie with armor, shield and sword and the crown on her head.

Germania (1914) by Friedrich August von Kaulbach (1850-1920).

There are a lot more examples from all European nations. Interesting and a little sad is how these once so peaceful figures were transformed into something so aggressive and hateful, they were mobilized.

Charles Martel

Another great defender of Christian Western civilization was the grandfather of Charlemagne the famous Charles Martel who defeated the Moslems in 732 in the Battle of Tours also called the Battle of Poitiers, which at least really happened.

This painting depicting the battle is by the French artist Charles Auguste de Steuben (1788-1856). It’s full of symbols. There is the cross, which has to be defended, there is the valiant Charles Martel with his impressive battle axe, and there is the old Abdul Rahman, who probably stayed in Spain. Abdul Rahman is fighting with a so called "falcate" a typical Pre-Roman Spanish sword. Probably the artist saw it in a Spanish museum and took it for typically Arab.

Charlemagne

This is a fresco painting from the town hall in Aachen. It shows Charlemagne in the battle of Cordova in 778. It’s by the German Romantic history painter Alfred Rethel (1816-1859) and dated from 1849/50.

It should be said that Charlemagne not even came near to Cordova or gained any battle in Spain. But these facts didn’t matter. The artist and his employers wanted to show the great defender of Christian Western civilization.

The whole image is a pure construction from the dramatic triangular composition to the imperial crown with which Charlemagne went to battle.