The Burial of Peace

This Dutch engraving depicts the funeral procession of Peace itself, a personified allegory mourned by soldiers, merchants, and civilians. Armies clash in the background while the coffin moves through a landscape of destruction—burning buildings, cannon fire, and chaos. The woodcut-style composition, with its layered narrative scenes stacked vertically, derives from Northern European broadsheet tradition. Religious and political satire commonly employed such visual allegories during the Thirty Years' War and subsequent conflicts. The print combines text and image to criticize warfare's human cost. As an ancestor to political cartooning and modern comics, this work demonstrates how engravers used exaggerated figures, symbolic objects, and multiple simultaneous scenes to communicate complex social critique to a literate and semi-literate public.