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.