A Convoy of Wounded Men Returning to France after the Battle of Marignano, 1829

This oil on canvas by Hippolyte Lecomte (1829, inv. 991.23) depicts a convoy of wounded French soldiers returning to the kingdom after the Battle of Marignano (13–14 September 1515), one of the greatest military victories of the early reign of Francis I, won against the Swiss at a heavy cost on both sides. Painted nearly three centuries after the events, in a style characteristic of early nineteenth-century Romanticism, the work illustrates the human cost behind military glory, a theme dear to history painters of that generation. The work is currently displayed as part of the exhibition "Amour, guerre et beauté: des ducs de Bourgogne aux Habsbourg," photographed here by Sophie P.