The History/Culture Behind 'Peace And War'

Peace And War was painted in 1896 at the Library of Congress by an American artist by the name of Julius Garibaldi Melchers (although he went by Gari Melchers) and was a two piece mural. Each panel of this dual mural juxtaposed the artist's interpretation of what War looks like with that of Peace.

War (seen on the previous page) portrays a chieftain of a primitive culture returning home with his fellow warriors from a successful but dearly won battle. He is crowned with a wreath of laurel and sites proudly astride a magnificent white horse. Warriors carry a roughly constructed stretcher on which they are bringing home the body of a fallen comrade for burial in his native soil. 

Peace (seen above) shows a religious procession in which the inhabitants of a village have come to the border of a grove bearing the image of their guardian goddess. The villagers carry various objects and lead a sacrificial bull to be offered as memorials to the goddess in thanks for peace.

Art ran in Gari Melcher's blood, his father was the German-born American sculptor Julius Theodore Melchers so it comes as no surprise that he achieved great artistic sucess. Despite being born in America, he studied in Paris and Holland, and has a list of recognitions and achievements from nations the world over and his most prominent works of art besides the above mentioned murals are as follows: The Supper at Emmaus, The Family,  and Mother and Child.