The Battle of Lützen occurred November 16, 1632…one of many battles of the Thirty Years’ War. This is a remarkable story about discovering the mass graves of the 6,000 to 9,000 soldiers who died that day.
When we think about images from the 1630s, we often think about the landscape paintings of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, such as Claude’s Mill on a River from 1631 (MFA, Boston). Such images present us with an idealized view
of the European landscape. Reading about the discovery of this mass grave…and seeing the photos in the gallery…we realize that
Jacques Callot’s The Battle, from his Large Miseries of War series of 1633, has a quality of documentation to it.
This is such a wonderful masterpiece. It captures the violence and brutality of war/fighting and depicts the injured and deceased soldiers so well. This portrait possesses the ability of telling a tragic, but amazing story of the Thirty Years War. I feel that it really allows us to see things in perspective of the people who were involved in the war. It educates us by providing an accurate historical account of what happened during the Thirty Years War.
Jacques Callot’s The Battle allows for the audience to view the kind of viciousness and cruelty that took place on this battlefield. The depiction of this scene is useful in that the people of today can see what occurred during the Thirty Years War and the people involved. In my perspective, I would’ve preferred if Callot illustrated this artwork with color because color could be helpful in conveying the mood during the time of this war.