The horrors of war - Rubens

A allegory of the Thirty Years' War, which tore Flanders apart. Mars leaves the temple of Janus open behind him and jostles Venus, who tries to hold him back. Alecto, brandishing her torch, pulls him forward. At top right, the monsters personify plague and famine. Below, the woman with the broken lute signifies the impossibility of harmony. At bottom right, an overturned architect, his instruments in hand. Mars tramples on the books. The woman in black on the left is war-torn Europe. Her attribute, the transparent globe surmounted by a cross, the symbol of Christianity, is carried by a child behind her.