Turks attacking a Harbour

Turks Attacking a Harbour from 1641, paired with Ships in a Southern Harbour at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, shifts from the peaceable commerce of its companion to violent maritime conflict. Ottoman naval raids on European coastal settlements were a genuine threat throughout the Mediterranean in the seventeenth century, and they provided ready-made dramatic material for Northern painters who could combine exotic 'Eastern' figures with the nautical subject matter they knew best. Peeters's treatment draws on a tradition of battle and raid paintings that stretched from the Flemish Mannerists through Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen. The Vienna pair together dramatise the full range of southern maritime encounter—from peaceful trade to violent predation.

The dramatic subject demands heightened contrast: fire and smoke in the harbour create dark masses against which muzzle flashes and burning structures provide vivid light accents. The water is disturbed by the movement of attacking vessels, its surface broken and dynamic compared to the companion painting.