The Return from War: Mars Disarmed by Venus

In 1609 the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic finally stopped fighting. The Twelve Years' Truce gave Antwerp its first real breathing space in a generation, and it is around then that two friends who shared the city painted this together. Peter Paul Rubens gave it the bodies: Venus leaning in to lift the helmet from Mars, the god of war, while small putti make off with his sword and shield. Jan Brueghel the Elder painted everything cold and metal, the pile of discarded armor gleaming in the corner with the precision he was famous for. The subject, Venus disarming her lover, was a familiar way of picturing peace. The two men worked side by side on more than 20 paintings over the years. Look at how carefully the abandoned weapons are laid out, still bright, still ready.