Destruction of Provence in 1536

This illustration by Charles-Joseph Mettais, titled “Destruction of Provence in 1536,” depicts the devastation suffered by Provence during the 1536 campaign, in the course of the war between Francis I and Charles V. The scene shows a ruined landscape, fires in the distance, destroyed buildings, bodies scattered on the ground, and armed groups moving through a ravaged setting. The composition evokes the scorched-earth strategy employed to deprive the enemy of resources during the imperial invasion of Provence. Created around 1860 and published in Paul Lehugeur’s Histoire de France en cent tableaux, this engraving belongs to the nineteenth-century tradition of historical illustration, which sought to give dramatic visual form to major military episodes of the French past.