Against the Forces of Nature

Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps (1812) by the British painter. Though Turner is mostly considered a landscape painter he did here kind of history painting. At least he mixes both genres. That Hannibal and his army are not simply decoration indicates the date of the painting. Turner saw parallels between Hannibal and Napoleon, and the historic Punic War between Rome and Carthage and the contemporary Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France. So history is important as a looking glass on modern events.