RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel
(b. 1577, Siegen, d. 1640, Antwerpen)
The Triumph of Victory
c. 1614
Oil on oak panel, 161 x 236 cm
Staatliche Museen, Kassel
Rubens painted this moral and political allegory for the Guild of St George, the Antwerp archers' company, in the period of the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648).
Rubens, who painted numerous allegories of this sort, shows the victor as a hero in antique armour, bloody sword in hand, seated as if enthroned upon the vanquished figures of Rebellion, symbolised by the torch, and Discord, from whose curls a snake emerges. The goddess of victory crowns him with a wreath of oak leaves. On the right, above the bound figure of Barbarism, a tutelary spirit proffers a a bundle of crossbow bolts, a symbol of concord. On the altar burns the holy flame of the Fatherland, which must be defended. Behind it, red, white and red of the Habsburg flag gives the general, timeless allegory a more specific connection to the time of its composition.
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Author: RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel
Title: The Triumph of Victory
Time-line: 1601-1650
School: Flemish
Form: painting
Type: historical
08/09/2024 7:35:28 PM Триумф Победы (ок.1614) (Германия, галерея старых мастеров).jpg