Art Institute of Chicago
Allegory on the Futility of Peace Talks with Spain
Unknown ArtistLinkedCulture matchlcp-b63e62bb2b50
- Date
- 1608
- Medium
- Engraving in black on cream laid paper
- Culture
- Netherlands
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 229704
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
In 1608 representatives from the Spanish Empire and the Dutch Republic met in The Hague to negotiate a truce to a military conflict that had been ongoing for the previous 40 years. This print depicts five Spanish diplomats (including the famous general Ambrogio Spinola) who participated in the talks and expresses a pessimistic view about their outcome. The artist included symbolic references to backwardness (a crustacean) and hopelessness (children blowing soap bubbles), and the mountains on the shield refer to Aesop’s fable about a pregnant mountain that groans loudly but gives birth to a mouse, signifying false promises.
The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of Meg and Mark Hausberg
Linked open data
Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.
- Object type
- AAT300041273
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.
Allegory of the Peace of Crèpy, 1544
Minneapolis Institute of Art
#140110
Allegory: Combat of Animals in the Presence of Man with Shield
Art Institute of Chicago
#23369
Soldiers Frightened by a Phantom, from Disparates, published as plate 2 in Los Proverbios
Art Institute of Chicago
#44895
Feestende boeren, soldaten en lichtekooien
Rijksmuseum
#RP-T-1893-A-2809
Plate 17 from "The Disasters of War" (Los Desastres de la Guerra): 'They do not agree' (No se convienen)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
#381298
De zeeslag tegen de Spaanse Armada bij Duins
Rijksmuseum
#SK-A-1363
Sad Forebodings of What is Going to Happen, plate one from The Disasters of War
Art Institute of Chicago
#79014
¡Bárbaros! (Barbarians!)
Minneapolis Institute of Art
#57918
And they are like wild beasts, plate five from The Disasters of War
Art Institute of Chicago
#124843
Rhetorica, from The Liberal Arts
Minneapolis Institute of Art
#140055
Even Worse, plate 22 from The Disasters of War
Art Institute of Chicago
#124869
Allegory of the Triumph of the Netherlands over Spain
Harvard Art Museums
#4637