Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps

What it is

This oil painting was made by the English artist J. M. W. Turner in 1812. It shows Hannibal's army, including Hannibal himself riding an elephant, caught in a snowstorm and under attack during the crossing of the Alps in 218 BC at the start of the Second Punic War. The painting is held today at Tate Britain in London.

Why it matters

Turner based the scene on ancient accounts by the historians Polybius and Livy, but he was also responding to his own time: Napoleon had recently crossed the Alps, and an earlier painting by Jacques-Louis David had linked Napoleon to Hannibal as a great military leader. Turner instead shrank Hannibal to a tiny figure dwarfed by the storm, using the scene to show the overwhelming power of nature rather than to glorify a commander.

Look closer

• Where is Hannibal in the painting, and how large does he appear compared to the storm?
• Why might Turner have chosen to make the landscape, not the general, the main subject?
• What does this painting reveal about how later artists used ancient history to comment on their own political moment?