ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

Pax (Treaty of Lausanne)

· 1923

Pax (Treaty of Lausanne)
This Greek political cartoon celebrates the Treaty of Lausanne through a satirical vision of peace. Dignitaries in formal dress sit solemnly at a conference table beneath a divine light, while the borders teem with chaotic scenes of war, displacement, and national conflict. The composition inverts the print tradition of Gillray and Daumier: rather than ridiculing the powerful directly, it mocks the gap between diplomatic ceremony and lived reality. The lithograph's dense marginal illustrations—battles, refugees, fortifications—recall the German Bilderbogen sheets that influenced modern cartooning. For Greeks, the treaty meant territorial loss and population exchange; the artist's ironic framing of 'Pax' exposes the bitter cost behind official proclamations of peace.

Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/