Allegory of Peace

Until 1982 this canvas was part of the Mauritshuis building itself. Painted around 1740, it served as a chimneypiece in the so-called Late Cabinet on the first floor, fitted into the panelling above the fireplace. Mattheus Terwesten, a Hague painter, made many decorative scenes of this kind, and they were often built into the rooms they decorated.

The woman on the throne is Peace. A suit of armour lies unused at her feet, she holds a palm branch, and a white dove is flying up into the air. When the canvas was taken out of the wall in 1982, it joined the collection as a painting in its own right.