![A bold bird’s eye view: the Battle of Alexanderat Issus, painted by Albrecht Altdorfer, 1529.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/alexanderschlacht-300x225.jpg)
Inventing the battlefield
Paintings of battles often tell us more about the political backdrop than about military successes or acts of war. What they actually reveal are changing understandings of history.
![The Confederates with Winkelried’s Corpse, painted by Ludwig Vogel, 1841.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/die-eidgenossen-bei-der-leiche-winkelried-300x233.jpg)
![Pencil sketch with watercolour by Ludwig Vogel showing a suit of armour from the 15th century in the Armoury Lucerne, undated.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/bleistiftzeichnung-von-ludwig-vogel-einer-rustung-aus-dem-15-jahrhundert-gbe-52419-lm-28000-196x300.jpg)
![Vogel’s design for the Winkelried monument in Stans, 1840.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/vogels-entwurf-fur-das-winkelreid-denkmal-in-stans-snm-gbe-50044-lm-26192-300x218.jpg)
![A focus on wartime atrocities: The Third of May 1808, painted by Francisco de Goya, 1814.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/die-erschiessung-der-aufstandischen-300x231.jpg)
![Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau, painted by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1808.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/napoleon-sur-le-champ-de-bataille-deylau-300x197.jpg)
![1807, Friedland, painted by Ernest Meissonier between 1861 and 1875.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/1807-friedland-300x165.jpg)
![3D figures in the foreground, painting in the background: the Bourbaki Panorama transports the onlooker to the supposed heart of the action.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/bourbaki-panorama-300x200.jpg)
Paintings of battles often tell us more about the political backdrop than about military successes or acts of war. What they actually reveal are changing understandings of history.