I chose Diego Velázquez’s The Surrender of Breda to be my blog’s header because it focuses on the human aspect of war. The painting depicts a Dutch military general handing over the keys to his city to a Spanish commander, symbolizing the Dutch’s surrender at the end of the Eighty Years’ War. It intends to emphasize a compassionate exchange between the two figures, devoid of any bitterness resulting from war. It neglects war’s aftermath in order to portray a symbolically touching moment between the two enemies. In this case, war has ended the bad blood between the two groups. War causes so much devastation that in the end, it truly does seem that the wisest and most noble thing to do is to simply surrender before further damage is done.
Humanization through Empathy 