“The Apothesis of War” (1871) by Russian painter Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin is an early example of pacifist art, designed to promote peacemaking through the stark depiction of the horrors of war. Note the city in the background. Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin dedicated this “to all conquerors, past, present and to come,”
Curious Christian 
I find the stunted trees a poignant feature of the painting, sobering isn’t it.
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Sobering to think of the killing fields that this painting stirs up.
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I’m struck by the length of time that seems to have passed. It seems to me that he’s not only commenting on the immediate effects of war, but the long term ramifications as well. That the death it brings becomes all encompassing … where first just the humans killed one another, now everything is dead except the vultures.
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