The Triumph of Victory, 1614 by Peter Paul Rubens

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.