Arti­cle Ancient Spoils of War

Focus on the Peck Feature

In ancient Greece and Rome, it was cus­tom­ary for con­quer­ing armies to seize objects of value from defeat­ed foes. This Focus on the Peck Col­lec­tion instal­la­tion presents two works of art that fea­ture depic­tions of ancient Roman spoils of war. The first is a draw­ing attrib­uted to sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Flem­ish artist Antho­ny van Dyck that depicts three ves­sels filled with gold coins. The sec­ond is a chiaroscuro wood­cut by six­teenth-cen­tu­ry Ital­ian artist Andrea Andreani that illus­trates a Roman tri­umphal pro­ces­sion fea­tur­ing sim­i­lar loot­ed items. Vio­lent­ly acquired, war ​“booty” rep­re­sent­ed both wealth and pres­tige to those who plun­dered it.

In ancient Greece and Rome, it was cus­tom­ary for a con­quer­ing army to seize objects of value from defeat­ed foes. Items ranged from arms and armor, cur­ren­cy, and expen­sive com­modi­ties to exot­ic ani­mals, live­stock, and even peo­ple. Before it was dis­trib­uted by the com­mand­ing gen­er­al to sol­diers and sup­port­ers, war ​“booty” was con­fig­ured into tem­po­rary mon­u­ments on the bat­tle­field and exhib­it­ed to enthu­si­as­tic onlook­ers dur­ing tri­umphal pro­ces­sions through the city. Vio­lent­ly acquired, such items rep­re­sent­ed both wealth and pres­tige to those who plun­dered them.

This Focus on the Peck Col­lec­tion instal­la­tion presents two works of art, a draw­ing and a wood­cut, that fea­ture depic­tions of ancient Roman spoils of war. The draw­ing attrib­uted to sev­en­teenth-cen­tu­ry Flem­ish artist Antho­ny van Dyck illus­trates three ves­sels filled to the brim with coins and is like­ly a study for a more detailed and exten­sive com­po­si­tion. Six­teenth-cen­tu­ry Ital­ian artist Andrea Andreani’s chiaroscuro wood­cut shows a seg­ment of a tri­umphal pro­ces­sion led by Roman mil­i­tary gen­er­al Julius Cae­sar, orig­i­nal­ly depict­ed by Ital­ian Renais­sance artist Andrea Man­teg­na around 1484 to 1492. It pro­vides a visu­al con­text for how the vases in Van Dyck’s draw­ing would have been incor­po­rat­ed in a state­ly vic­to­ry parade. 

Three Vases

Attrib­uted to Antho­ny van Dyck, Flem­ish, 1599 – 1641, Three Vases, c. 1618, pen and brown ink with black chalk. The Peck Col­lec­tion, 2017.1.122

See Three Vases in more detail here.

Plun­dered gold coins fill three assort­ed ves­sels in this draw­ing attrib­uted to Flem­ish artist Antho­ny van Dyck. The most elab­o­rate­ly drawn vase fea­tures three goat heads inter­laced with dancers, a ref­er­ence to the Roman deity Bac­chus, god of agri­cul­ture and wine. 

The draw­ing relates to a paint­ing called Tro­phy, now in the Liecht­en­stein Col­lec­tion, Vien­na, exe­cut­ed by Flem­ish artist Peter Paul Rubens’s assis­tants. It depicts a tropaeum, or mon­u­ment, con­struct­ed of cap­tured weapons, armor, and bat­tle stan­dards with three vases sit­u­at­ed in the imme­di­ate fore­ground. Cre­at­ed around 1616 or 1617, the paint­ing was among the prepara­to­ry designs made for Rubens’s large tapes­try cycle about Decius Mus, a Roman Con­sul who sac­ri­ficed him­self to gain vic­to­ry for his peo­ple. As Van Dyck worked with Rubens early in his career, the Peck Col­lec­tion draw­ing may be a pre­lim­i­nary design for the fin­ished painting.

The Tri­umph of Julius Cae­sar: The Lit­tle Bearers

Andrea Andreani, Ital­ian, 1558/1559 – 1629 (print­mak­er) and Andrea Man­teg­na, Ital­ian, c. 1431 – 1506 (design­er), The Tri­umph of Julius Cae­sar: The Lit­tle Bear­ers, c. 1599, chiaroscuro wood­cut. Bur­ton Emmett Col­lec­tion, 58.1.186

See The Tri­umph of Julius Cae­sar: The Lit­tle Bear­ers in more detail here. 

Accom­plished print­mak­er Andrea Andreani trans­lat­ed paint­ings and sculp­ture by Ital­ian Renais­sance artists into chiaroscuro wood­cuts — print­ed images made from mul­ti­ple wood­blocks inked with dif­fer­ent tones. This print repro­duces a scene from Andrea Mantegna’s acclaimed series of nine paint­ings depict­ing The Tri­umph of Julius Cae­sar, cre­at­ed a cen­tu­ry ear­li­er for the Gon­za­ga Ducal Palace in Man­tua. In this scene, young men carry var­i­ous spoils of war, includ­ing fine­ly wrought arms and armor, vases and pitch­ers, as well as an urn over­flow­ing with coins. Andreani’s series was enor­mous­ly pop­u­lar, both for its ambi­tious scale and for its ref­er­ences to clas­si­cal antiquity. 

Jan­u­ary 24 – April 19, 2020