Hyacinth de La Pegna (1706-1772), Hyacinth de La Pegna (1706-1772) Equestrian battle

Oil on canvas, 41 × 59cm

La Pegna was born and educated in Brussels, and his life and work repeatedly visited Paris, Brussels and Rome. In 1755, Empress Maria Theresa appointed him “peintre extraordinaire”. From 1755 to 1759 he headed the tapestry factory in Brussels. The present painting dates from 1748, when La Pegna was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. At that time he stayed in Rome for a few years. It is one of his rarely preserved paintings. Hyacinth de la Pegna also created etchings with military scenes. Two large-format battle paintings (1758, 1759) are known from Hyazinth de la Pegna, which are kept in the Military History Museum in Vienna and which he painted for Field Marshal Prince Leopold Joseph von Daun to commemorate his victories in the Seven Years' War over Prussia.

We see the fight for the troop's flag, a popular theme in small-format battle paintings. The composition is asymmetrically pyramidal, with the waving red flag at its top in front of the dramatic dark clouds. In the center of the picture, a cuirassier with his saber to the left fights against a charging rider who is firing a pistol, as can be seen from the red glow of the muzzle flash. To his right, another cuirassier is fighting against a man in a red buff coat who is threatening him with a bayonet. Fallen men lie on the ground, and to the left there is a view of the battlefield, where a castle rises in the distance. A soldier flees on foot to the left. What is remarkable about the present picture is that it does not depict a contemporary battle, but one from the third quarter of the 17th century, as the armament with a bayonet and the clothing reveal. The riders in the beige buff coat ((buff coat)) with the blue sashes are reminiscent of the representations of the Swedes in the battles of the Thirty Years' War. Signed and dated on the lower right: H. la Pegna f. 1748. Oil on canvas, 41 × 59cm