J.M.W. Turner — The Sunshine Boy

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, 1812
oil on canvas
One of Turner's achievements would be to make landscape not just the equal of history painting, but a kind of history painting, in which nature operates as a surrogate for the force of events. In this canvas it's not even clear where Turner has placed Hannibal. Could he be that minuscule silhouette in the middle distance on a tiny elephant, the one dwarfed by the coiling surf of gray-brown cloud above his head? The mighty general is just a comma in the larger scheme.

• Turner Show at the National Gallery : Review