Oddity of the Week: Thinking About Peace
Created | Updated Dec 1, 2013
Let's start the Advent season right.
Thinking About Peace
It's December. Time to think about Advent. 'Advent' means 'arrival'. What do we want to arrive this December? More goods from the delivery man? More holiday hassle? How about peace?
Here's one to start us off. According to the Library of Congress, this peace allegory was painted by John Rubens Smith (1775-1849), to commemorate the peace treaty between Britain and the US in 1814. Here's the description:
In an allegory of the Treaty of Ghent, signed on Dec. 24, 1814, Britannia and America hold olive branches before an altar. Sailors, holding British and American flags, hold an uninscribed banner; through drapes and pillars a dove flies out of a triangle.
A Christmas Eve peace treaty that held? Wow. Makes a nice change.
There's a reason why the child whose birthday is being celebrated was called the Prince of Peace. It's not a sure thing. More of a hopeful statement. Like this allegory.
Have some eggnog.
