Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps - 1812, William Turner

Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps - 1812, William Turner

This picture represents Hannibal and his army who were crossing the alps when a snow storm clashed with them. Indeed the protagonist of the painting is the dark sky that seems like a monster that wants to eat the soldiers. So Turner, with this work, underlines man's fragility in the face of nature's power. Looking at this picture we feel different feelings: the  sense of adimiration and reverence because of the greatness and the mysteriousness of the subject but also fear and agony. The ambivalence of feelings creates a sense of astonishment that makes it in agreement with the theory of sublime of Romantic movement.

                                                                               Turner's painting Barone Gianluca VH

Turner is one of the most representative painters of the sublime, because in his painting he is able to give us strong feelings. In the painting, the Hannibal’s army is crossing the Alps, in in the middle of a snow storm. The soldiers seems in trouble, they are trying to search a cave or a shelter but they can’t see anything because the storm, that gives the viewer the feeling of fear, is really strong. At the end, we can see a red weak sun that, lighting up the soldiers, gives us the feeling that this storm is going to finish. M.Ragolia

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