Snow Storm Hannibal And His Army Crossing The Alps by Joseph Mallord William Turner is one of the greatest masterpieces of the world art. It depicts the tremendous snowstorm which happens in the Alps and overtakes the army of Hannibal.
The depiction of the snowstorm is very saturated and evocative. The sun is very high and barely seen through a violent somber sky which occupies the most of the painting and, on the contrary, the opposite side of the picture represents a burst of bright light of the Alps far off. Those rich colors of two opposite states of nature evoke the necessary feeling of horror in front of the natural force: the deep darkness absorbs the sun, the sky, the mountains and everything. And only in time the viewer makes out the people fighting, with Hannibal barely visible below. People are not painted in details; the picture reveals the presence of a big army on the background, termination of a fight on the foreground, and the general people awareness of a snowstorm coming, which will be even more dangerous than the fight. This picture represents Turner’s special painting style, in which he created light, motion, and vanishing atmospheric effects. His composition suggests movement and space; and the whole painting is bent for elimination of forms, which become only visions, serving to evoke different emotions. In other words, Turner exceeds the composition space, making it a setting for impressions creation. Thus, Turner exercises in light and color, and engenders a new style in painting, which Impressionists would develop a bit later.
This picture, being partly representational, still can be considered as an abstract work. First of all, the painting depicts mountains, the sky, the sun, and people; all this is quite representational. But at the same time, apart from few people on the foreground, which are depicted clearly, the rest of the army is revealed as a whole mess, some abstract human’s force which surmounts the Alps and faces threatening natural force, snowstorm. It is possible to distinguish only silhouettes and figures. And this mess gives impression of joy for winning the battle, but at the same time, restless, disorder and fear is in the air. The snowstorm itself is revealed as darkness absorbing the whole world and even the sun; it forms a horrible monster with open jaws; and snow whirlwinds enhance the atmosphere of disorder and even Armageddon, where the whole world is upside down, and dark mountains of white snow absorb the sky. The painter reveals the storm so vividly that before the viewer’s eyes arise the scenes of storm killing the whole army. On the whole, this painting evokes the understanding of the nature omnipotence, and human weakness. For the monster, the snowstorm, occupies the most of the picture, and for people Turner leaves the smallest and the lowest part of his painting, pointing out the human insignificance.
Another thought revealed in this painting is people greediness and cruelty. Based on Hannibal crossing the Alps in 218 BC, it also implies to Napoleon’s crossing the Alps in 1800. Turner highlights that people are so greedy, that they are ready to witness all those horrors of war and troubles of such a long trip only for the sake of their wicked aims. The painting depicts the murder which is approved by the leader of whole people; that is a predatory march which intermingles with the simple plunder and robbery. This picture can illustrate the strain theory, highlighting the evil nature of people, who are liable to wickedness. But still Turner believes that nature makes the order, punishing those people.
Another theory which this painting can evoke is cycle theory. This theory suggests that events and history itself are always repeating in cycles. It is well known that the painting of this picture was inspired by Napoleon march through the Alps. Turner reminds that it already happened in the start of our millennium: another invader went to conquer another people, and ancient warriors were just like modern ones, greedy and evil. But Turner puts a warning in his painting: there is always more powerful force, in case of Turner’s Hannibal it was snowstorm, and in case with Napoleon, it was another people and, ironically, snow/frost in Russia.
The painting under consideration is a masterpiece which lies between two artistic epochs, romanticism and impressionism, and reveals the best technique of these two styles. Turner’s rich colors and movement of composition depict one subtle moment and the whole epoch. But Snow Storm is very important in terms of the world art, not only due to its artistic means, but also due to its ideas revealed to viewers. Turner underlines the greatness of the nature which can make people live or die. And he also condemns people desire to destroy and conquer. He also stressed that such long trips are very dangerous and end in nothing; all those attempts to conquer the whole world are useless, and we know this for sure since it all happened already.