Joan and Michael

The archangel Michael appears to Joan of Arc (1876) by the French painter Eugène Thirion (1839-1910).

Different from many other paintings Joan is here no warrior. She’s a poor girl spinning wool when the archangel appears. In the back is a heroic bugler to be seen.
So it’s above all a patriotic call to arms, which has to be put into the context of the lost war against Prussia in 1871.

Art Deco Cleopatra

Cleopatra by the American Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951).

Leyendecker was a brilliant illustrator of the Art Deco movement. His Cleopatra here is pure ornament and decoration. A historical person is converted into an icon.

Sicilian Vespers

The Sicilian Vespers by the Italian painter Francesco Hayez (1791-1882).

Hayez was the most important Italian Romantic painter in the 19th century and probably the most important history painter too. Here he shows the rebellion in Sicily in 1282 against the French rule. The Italians slaughtered then all the French on the island. Here a French seeks protecting beneath the cross, but in vain.
Hayez was fascinated by the subject because between 1821 and 1846 he painted a whole series of it.

The Adventurer

The Adventurer (1882) by the Swiss symbolist painter Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901).

Despite is nearly perfectly painted with very realistic details, it’s no realistic painting at all. The whole scenery and pose are constructed. The parting ship, the bones, the lonesome knight all are symbols.
Böcklin doesn’t pretend to show a real scene of history, it’s much more an idea, a dream.

Facing Death

The Last moments of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico by the French painter Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921).

Laurens shows here the farewell of Maximilian before his execution. Different from his friends he’s the only one showing real strength, he’s going to die like an Emperor.

Defending Civilization

The Romans cause a wall to be built (1857) by the Scottish painter William Bell Scott (1811-1890) .

Scott depicts here the construction of the Hadrian's Wall in Northern England. While the work is going on it is already attacked by the barbarian Scots. So it permits the people to live in peace.

Napoleon-Cult

The battle of Jena by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815–1891). Another of Napoleon’s great victories by the well known French battle painter.

Bitter Grief

Mourning her Brave (1883) by the American painter George de Forest Brush (1855-1941). A great symbolic painting about grief, the tragic end of a people.

Above all in it's simplicity and it's nearly abstract, two dimensional execution it's a really modern painting. It doesn't pretend to be realistic, it's a powerful impression of a tragedy.

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.

The Colossus of Rhodes

The Colossus of Rhodes (1914) by the Spanish painter Antonio Muñoz Degrain (1840-1924). When he painted this Muñoz Degrain had long moved to impressionism and done several journeys to Turkey, Syria and Egypt. So the painting is less a historical but much more a reflection about light and life in the Near East.

Art Nouveau Knight

A knight errant from the beginning of the 20th century by the Austrian painter Erwin Stolz (1896-1987).

Maybe he represents Sir Galahad searching the Holy Grail. In the best Art Nouveau manner the painting reduces perspective and colors but is instead full of symbols like the divine light from above or the wild geese an old icon for wandering adventurers,

Classical Barbarians

The Death of Viriathus the chief of the Lusitanians (1807) by the Spanish painter José de Madrazo y Agudo (1781-1859).

Viriathus was the most important leader of the Lusitanian when they resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Hispania, today Portugal. Viriathus fought with great success against the Romans until he was betrayed to the Romans and killed in138 BC.

So it’s not astonishing that Viriathus was discovered in the 19th century by the patriots of Portugal and Spain as a kind of early national hero fighting foreign oppressors like Napoleon in their present days. But surprising is at least the fact that Madrazo depicted the barbarian chieftain and his followers as Greek or Romans. The whole painting resembles a lot the “Oath of the Horatii” (1784) by David. The explanation is that Madrazo was a pupil of David in Paris. And as the Lusitanians are looking like their Roman enemies, the Spanish patriot painted like his French adversaries.