De dood van Tiberius Gracchus 1818

Bartolomeo Pinelli made this print, The Death of Tiberius Gracchus, in Italy in the early 19th century. It depicts a scene from ancient Roman history, the murder of a politician and reformer. Pinelli’s image creates meaning through a number of visual codes. The setting is clearly meant to evoke ancient Rome, as are the togas worn by all the figures. The murder weapon, a heavy stool, underscores the political and class divisions of the time, as does the mob-like mentality of the murderers, who are clearly agents of the aristocratic class seeking to squash popular reform. In its time, this image was an implicit critique of contemporary social structures in Italy. As historians, we examine the political role of art by connecting its visual arguments to period documents. Scholarly publications may also analyze how the image challenges the institutional structures in place at the time of its making.