10 Peace Monuments Depicting Food & Drink

Right click image to enlarge.

2600-2400 BCE - Peace Panel, Standard of Ur, British Museum, London (England). "Peace" [upper image & detail] portrays a banquet scene. Attendants parade animals, fish, and other goods (possibly war booty) before seated figures, while a lyrist entertains the throng." "The 'standard' is a hollow wooden box and a mosaic inlaid with red limestone, lapis lazuli and shells. Its original function is not understood, but it has been suggested it was born upon a pole as a standard, thus its common name, 'The Standard of Ur.' Another suggestion was its use as a carrying case for a musical instrument. Excavated in what was the old royal cemetery in what had been the ancient city of Ur, which was located in modern-day Iraq, south of Baghdad. There are two larger panels – one side depicting peace and the other side war [lower image]."

Circa 1618 - ''The Union of Earth & Water (Antwerp and the Scheldt)" by Peter Paul Rubens [1577-1640], Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (Russia). "The alliance of Cybele, Goddess of Earth, and Neptune, God of Victory, as the important alliance of Flanders and the sea, the River Scheldt and the city of Antwerp."

1629-30 - "Allegory on the blessings of peace", National Gallery, London (England). By Peter Paul Rubens [1577-1640]. Oil on canvas, 203.5 x 298 cm (80 1/8 x 117 1/4 in). Also called "Peace & War" and "Minerva protects Pax from Mars."

1780 - "Peace Bringing Back Abundance" by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun [1755-1842], Musée du Louvre, Paris (France). Oil on canvas, 40 3/8" x 52 1/8."

1917 - Ohio Peace Monument, Cravens House, Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee (USA). Base of monument depicts a female figure surrounded with grain, machinery & other fruits of peace. Click here for other Civil War peace monuments. Erected by State of Ohio.

1980? - Taos Peace House & Infoshop, 801 Arroyo Seco, Taos, New Mexico (USA). "Food Not Bombs started in 1980 when eight college aged activists dressed as generals & started holding bake sales pretending to buy a bomber. Thirty years later, Food Not Bombs continues to encourage the redirection of our resources from the military towards human needs."

About 1986 - "Banquet de l’Humanité," Agropolis-Museum, Agropolis International, 951 avenue Agropolis, Montpelier (France). Displays how each one eats according to one’s income, food resources and cultural background. /// This musuem for peace no longer exists?

October 18, 2000 - "Women are Persons!" Monument, Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada). "Commemorates the Persons Case & the 'Famous Five' women involved. Until this monument was installed, the only people honoured by statues [in Ottawa] were dead prime ministers, monarchs & fathers of confederation. The Famous Five Foundation lobbied for about five years to have the Famous Five commemorated on the Hill. Five Alberta women fought to have Canadian women recognized constitutionally as 'persons' who were eligible to be named to the Senate. Emily Murphy led the battle, and she was supported by Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Muir Edwards & Nellie Mcclung. The Supreme Court of Canada rejected their case in 1928, but the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council decided in favour of the women on October 18, 1929. These courageous ladies came to be known as the 'Famous Five,' and October 18 is now known as Persons Day in Canada."

2001 - "Let's Have Tea" (statues of suffragist Susan B. Anthony & abolitionist Frederick Douglass), Susan B. Anthony Square, Rochester, New York (USA). One block from Susan B. Anthony House. Made by Laotian sculptor Pepsy Kettvong (right image).

August 2014 - Eatable anti-war monument, Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr, Dresden (Germany). "An eatable monument from New Zealand will come to Dresden on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. Artist Kingsley Baird constructs a sculpture made of cookies, a monument against the war. The sculpture will be gradually eaten by visitors. 'The evanescence of the monument emphasizes the wastefulness of wars,' said Baird on Tuesday in New Zealand's capital Wellington. He teaches Creative Art at the Massey University. Baird wants to stack up 18,000 cookies shaped like German, French, Australian & New Zealand soldiers in the form of a tomb. He will use a special kind of dough used for cookies made for soldiers & sent all over the world. There are different forms of the cookies, and the nationalities will be recognizable by the shape of the helmets. 'There are 12 different forms, some of them are wounded and have a missing arm or leg,' Biard said. The cookies will be made in France, there the sculpture will be on view at the Museum Historial de la Grande Guerre in Peronne. Baird hopes that the visitors will be participating actively. 'The project does not function, if it does not encourage people to think about the war, the victims & the emaciation of men & women in the war.'" GERMANY WW_I FOOD ANTI-WAR

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