A shaft of golden light breaks through storm-dark clouds as an angel in red and white robes descends from above, wings outstretched and arm raised in a commanding gesture. Below, chaos reigns among a mass of soldiers and horses, their bodies twisting and recoiling in terror and confusion. At the center, a white horse rears up, its rider in green and gold turning his head back in alarm, while another figure in a turban clutches his shield and looks upward in fear.

To the left, a black horse plunges forward, its rider slumping as if struck, while at the bottom of the scene, pale corpses lie sprawled across the ground, their limbs contorted and faces frozen in agony. Spears and banners jut diagonally from the densely packed throng, leading the eye toward the angelic host that bursts through the clouds, their forms rendered in swirling, energetic brushstrokes. The palette is dominated by deep blues, blacks, and earthy browns, with flashes of crimson and gold drawing attention to key figures and heightening the drama.

Rubens uses sweeping, fluid lines and thick, expressive paint to create a sense of movement and tumult, especially in the billowing drapery and the muscular bodies of the fallen. The composition spirals outward from the central angel, whose arrival signals the supernatural intervention described in the biblical story. In the background, the suggestion of tents and distant figures hints at the scale of the defeated army, while the darkness of the sky intensifies the sense of divine wrath. The Defeat of Sennacherib was painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1614.

The subject is taken from the story in 2 Kings:19, where the army of Sennacherib is struck down by an angel. The painting was once part of the Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz collection and the Electoral Gallery Dusseldorf.