Reading the the death sentence Trazey Pet 

Fyodor Bronnikov painted ‘Reading the Death Sentence to Trazey Pet’ to depict a scene from Roman history. But to truly understand its meaning, we must consider the painting's production in Russia during the late 19th century. Bronnikov uses the visual codes of Neoclassicism to evoke a distant historical moment. But, we can examine the rise of historical painting within the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts. The Academy played a crucial role in shaping artistic styles and promoting nationalistic narratives, and the vogue for Neoclassicism allowed for reflection on contemporary social structures, often through a distant historical lens. Was Bronnikov commenting on Russian autocracy or the injustice of the legal system? As historians, we consult archives, letters, and exhibition records to reveal the complex web of social and institutional forces that shaped Bronnikov's artistic choices and consider art as something contingent on social and institutional context.