Bloody Carnage

The Massacre of the Abencerrages (1874) by the French painter Georges Jules Victor Clairin (1843-1919). The cruel subject is taken from Chateaubriand's Aventures du dernier Abencérage (1826)i.e. Boabdil, the last king of Granada. Boabdil lured the rival tribe of the Abencerrages in the Alhambra, where all were slaughtered. The legend says that the fountain flowed not with water but with blood.

After the Battle

After the battle of Fýrisvellir (1888) by the Swedish painter Mårten Eskil Winge (1825-1896). In the battle of Fýrisvellir the Swedes repelled an army of Nordic invaders. Though it's a great nation victory it's interesting that Winge didn't paint the great heroic deeds but the contemplative moments after the battle

Treacherous Mermaids

Mermaids' Rock (c.1894) by the British painter Edward Matthew Hale (1852-1924). Interesting is that sirens and mermaids where normally painted in a classical Greek context. Hale preferred here some Vikings or Celts meaning his own British ancestors.

Surrender of Acre

The Surrender of Acre by the French painter Merry-Joseph Blondel (1781-1853). The most important victory of the Third Crusade. Here the Muslim garrison surrenders to the French king Philip Augustus and the English king Richard I. Another piece for the Crusader Gallery in the National Museum in Versailles.

Prussian Battle

Hochkirch by the German realist painter Adolf von Menzel. (1815-1905). Menzel shows here the inferno of a battle. Men are struggling to move forward, they are afraid. There is no dumb heroism.

Historical Drama

Eruption of Vesuvius by the English painter John Martin (1789-1854). Martin specialized in dramatic natural disasters and presented his paintings as a kind of pre-cinema.

Sweet Kitsch

Lesbia Weeping over a Sparrow by the Dutch born British painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadelma (1836-1912).

Alma Tadema refers here to the poem Lesbia's Sparrow by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus.

"All you Loves and Cupids cry and all you men of feeling my girl's sparrow is dead..."

Dramatic Attack

The phalanx attacking the centre in the battle of the Hydaspes book illustation by the French artist and engraver André Castaigne (1861-1929). Despite that the Macedonian phalanx attacked with the sarissa a 4 to 7 meterlong pike Castaigne depicts them here attacking with the sword because of the better dramatic effect.

Battle of Castillon

The Battle of Castillon by the French painter Charles-Philippe Larivière (1798-1876). The Battle of Castillon (July 1453) in Gascony was the last and decisive French victory and marked the end of the Hundred Years' War. Larivière shows here the death of the English commander John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury.

Hus at Constance

Hus at Constance (1842) by the German romantic painter Carl Friedrich Lessing (1808-80). The German protestant shows here Hus as a kind of forefather of Luther defying the clergy who will burn him.

Mythical Villain

The Death of Ravana King of Lanka (1875) by the French painter Fernand-Anne Piestre Cormon (1845-1924). Ravana is the villain in the Hindu epic Ramayana where he kidnaps Rama's wife. Cormon depicts him like an ancient warrior king mourned by his wifes.

Aeskulap

Aeskulap by the English painter Edward Poynter (1836-1919). Looking at the four patients I suspect Aeskulap was more an excuse to show some nudes.