War Heroes and War Art

Throughout history, war heroes have traditionally liked extremely heroic war art done of themselves. Of course, this tends to have been done before the time of photography, however the photography tended to inhibit the extravagance and exuberance of war art, in favor of a more realistic and less dressed up version of events. For that reason, among others, war art of the past seems to be particularly favored, though fairly out of style, both for its disassociation with reality and for its glorified ideals.

1. To commemorate

Often, war art of war heroes is made to commemorate a particularly notable event or proud moment. In particular, before records were as well preserved and as accurately kept, war art was a great way to provide what externally appeared to be an incredibly accurate portrayal of events and of the war heroes. Moreover, in the days when the victors told the only stories, war art seemed both more officious and more believable than stories told by the subjugated and uneducated.

2. To intimidate

As people who study the subject know, history has a tendency of giving war heroes accolades that they hadn’t originally received. For instance, one of the most well known war art pieces is the painting of Napoleon on a rearing horse, known as Napoleon Crossing the Alps, which is widely known to be almost entirely fictionalized. In reality, it was probably a hard trek across unforgiving mountain passes, though the picture of Napoleon gallantly leading his forces on to victory is what is mostly remembered. In general, however, anyone at the time who would have seen one of these paintings (there were five of them, so it is likely that a number of people saw them) would have thought far more impressive thoughts of Napoleon.

3. To remember

Though paintings and the like are much harder to come by than photographs, paintings were used in the same way that we use photographs today. War heroes would commission war art in order to remember an event, or to pass down so that subsequent generations would remember. Furthermore, war heroes would use their own portraits as artwork in their own houses as decoration, but also to represent their greatest events to visitors.

4. To “educate”

Of course, war heroes want themselves and their events to be remembered in just the right way. By having war art created that memorialized the war heroes’ greatest deeds, the war heroes could give these pieces to other rulers and dignitaries in favor of spreading rumors of these deeds.

War Heroes

Around the world, in every war fought by people, there are war heroes to which other citizens inevitable owe their lives and to whom they pay their respects. In America alone there are thousands of memorial to war heroes which collectively receive millions of visitors annually. The difficulty of these memorials to our war heroes is that they are scattered around the country, making it difficult for people distances away to pay their respect to the war heroes they so admire. Fortunately, the internet offers a wonderful variety of sites, each with a picture gallery that stand in testament to all sorts of war heroes around the world, both providing a dissemination of the names and deeds of these war heroes, and allowing those who already with to pay their respects to view a gallery without the difficulty of long distance travel.

1. Lettersfront.org

This website has a gallery of pictures of Jewish war heroes who served in Word War II. In addition, they have stories, documents, music, and a number of other electronized artifacts set to commemorate these war heroes in their gallery.

2. IraqWarHeroes.org/AfghanistanWarHeroes.org

This website (the two addresses link to the same site) maintains an incredible gallery of every fallen soldier in these respective wars. The gallery contains pictures of the fallen war heroes and a profile for each and, in addition, contains pictures of the memorials and tributes to the soldiers that the moderator personally photographs. Besides this, it offers resources on PTSD for people and soldiers struggling with it. This gallery is, without a doubt, one of the most extensive memorials to soldiers for these past wars maintained by a private citizen and has won earned accolades for it.

3. War Dogs

This particular profile contains a huge gallery in memorial to unusual war heroes: war dogs. These are dogs that are used to sniff out mines, protect soldiers, and offer other services. Though these war heroes are unusual, this resource also has a few stories that describe the wonderful services these animals provided, and maintains media of Vietnam War memorabilia, from when these war dogs were commonly used.

4. supportourwarheroes.net

This website runs a foundation dedicated to supporting American soldiers from the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, most especially those who maintained life-altering illnesses. It also maintains a gallery of war heroes and the events that the foundation hosts, as well as a few videos of made in tribute.