PEACE. How is it portrayed in Art?

Peace is an elusive, seemingly unsustainable state. Artists, poets, clergy, and peacemakers create art to help secure peace and maintain peace.

I narrowed the topic down to a few familiar theme and symbols.

A DOVE

The white of a dove symbolizes purity, love, and peace. It can also symbolize the third entity in the Christian trinity: the Holy Spirit of God.

Picasso is famous for his simple line drawings of doves. He created several renditions. His art of doves served as an international symbol for peace and love. Picasso’s started created doves a few years after the end of WWII. His doves were some of the most hopeful and uplifting pieces of art after the barbaric trauma and inhumanity of the war.

This rendition of a dove was chosen as the symbol for the first International Peace Conference Paris, 1949.

Doves are featured in a large tapestry at the United Nations building in New York as a tribute to peacemakers. It is displayed at the top of a stairway to the General Assembly Building.

One of my favorite pieces of art is "La Trinita," by Masaccio (born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, 1401-1428). It is in the church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy,

Christ is depicted as he is being crucified on the cross. The white dove in flight is above the depiction of Christ. The figure standing behind Christ is “God the Father.”

This dove floating between Christ and God the Father is a visual presentation of the holy Spirit. Thus presenting one of the first images of Holy Trinity with a dove and in this configuration.

Below is a close-up of the dove above Jesus' head. I believe the bird has olive twigs in its mouth.

Jesus was known as the "Prince of Peace," and is often shown giving the peace gesture to his followers.

This is a medallion of Christ displaying the peace symbol. The medallion is from a group of twelve that once surrounded an icon of the archangel Gabriel. It is from the 1100s and was created in gold, silver, and enamel as cloisonné.

Hand gestures signifying peace have been used by many cultures including hand positions by The Buddha. A greeting of peace with a hand gestures or a hug has continued today among Jewish people in the greeting "shalom," It is also a tradition in other cultures such as the use of "Aloha" in Hawaiian. In Christian congregations people greet each other with a sign of the peace, a hug or a handshake.

Stay with me here, while we jump about 900 years into the future from the Christ Medallion, to Bethel, New York, August 15–18, 1969. This was the the site of the famous (or infamous?) music festival for peace and love known as Woodstock. The iconic Woodstock poster features a dove resting on the neck of the stylized guitar.

Woodstock was imagined as a peace “happening" meant to bring attention to a peaceful gathering of hippies and music. Wear flowers in your hair. Love you neighbor. Make love not war. Live in peace and harmony. Use the dove as a symbol of peace and love.

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The straight line intersected with an upside-down V, and surrounded by a circle is generally known as a peace symbol. It was widely adopted in the American anti-war movement in the 1960s, and has been interpreted as calling for world peace.

THE OLIVE BRANCH

Sometimes doves are portrayed with an olive branch (or twig) in their mouths, and as in some of the examples above, sometimes not. Noah's dove in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, was released by Noah from the arc to see if if could find land. When the dove returned with an olive branch, it was "announced to the world the assuagement of the divine wrath, when the dove had been sent out of the ark and returned with the olive branch.”

The olive twig symbolizes abundance, fertility, and living in harmony with others in tranquility and concord.

The idea of passing an olive branch is itself a powerful reference to creating a resolution; an acceptance of the other; and a gentle acknowledgment of the end of warring.

"Extending an olive branch” as a symbol of peace and goodwill goes back to ancient Greek mythology.

A fifty pence piece shown here as listed in the Standard Catalogue of British Coins in the late 20th century. The coin shows Britannia with a trident and olive branch.

Even the Great Seal of the United States has included the image of an olive branch into its symbolism.

WOMEN PERSONIFYING PEACE

In many pieces of art from sculpture, to paintings, to tapestries, women are introduced as a personification of peace. They are often accompanied by Abundance (or Plenty), or Justice.

This textile features Peace on the left. with Justice in the center, and Plenty on the right. Peace has a dove with an olive branch, and I’m not sure what is in her right hand. (Perhaps a palm or a stem from a lily?) Justice has the scales of justice and a sword. Plenty has a cornucopia. The women are surrounded by symbols of life and fertility in the form of pollinating insects, fruits, and flowers.

The piece is in the collection of the Chicago Art Institute. It is embroidered silk and has been created with threads of gilt-metal (gold), gilt-metal-strip-wrapped-silk, and embellished with mica and glass beads. An opulent work fit for a royal family. (I do not know if it was destined for a Royal family.) It is approximately 13” x 17”. It was woven in the 17th C in England.

In Peace Bringing Back Abundance, Peace is a dark-haired beauty, carefully and tenderly ushering in Abundance as a young maiden in the prime of her appeal. Abundance is carrying a cornucopia under her right arm, and in her left hand, short pieces of wheat rich with seeds.

Peace has an olive branch in her right hand and is wearing an olive crown. The sweet image conveys the act of assuring that abundance is arriving with Peace in the future. This painting was created by Elisabeth Louis Vigée Le Brun (French) in 1783. The American Revolution had ended that year with the signing of the Treaty of Paris by US and British representatives. Elisabeth Louis Vigée Le Brun was looking to the future with hope.

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PLANET EARTH

When we think of peace on earth, we might think of it in terms of peace vs war.

We think of the risks to our fragile sphere of life as she races and spins through the cosmos.

This photograph is of our home from the window of a spacecraft helmed by American astronauts. The quiet image of our brilliantly blue and cloudy planet, is a far cry from the chaotic life many of us lead.

From this vantage point, peace seems like the only logical option. Why screw up something so beautiful?

Indeed. Why not choose peace?

Peace be with you my dear friends. Have a happy, peaceful 2024.

Do you have a favorite symbol or painting signifying peace? Share with me any that I have not included.