Soldiers pillaging a town
17th century
Medium
Pen and black and brown ink, brush and brown wash, heightened with white, on laid paper prepared with gray wash; framing lines in pen and black ink
Dimensions
sheet: 4 5/16 x 3 3/4 in. (11 x 9.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1952
Accession Number
52.567.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
This anonymous 17th-century drawing captures the brutal realities of warfare through a compact scene of soldiers looting a burning town. Amid the chaos, figures on horseback ransack homes while women and infants flee, highlighting the devastating impact of conflict on civilians. Created during an era marked by prolonged European wars such as the Thirty Years’ War, the work reflects the period’s widespread violence and social upheaval, themes frequently explored in art to document or critique contemporary events. The employed pen and ink with brown wash on gray-prepared paper, heightened with ...