Ancient and Modern Assault on a City, Siege Tower and Battle, Lithograph, 1842

This original antique lithograph, colored by hand, comes from the Galleria Universale di Tutti i Popoli del Mondo (Venice, Giuseppe Antonelli, 1842) and sets two ways of taking a city side by side. In the upper image a tall timber siege tower on wheels stands against a brick city wall, its top crowded with fighting men and a gangway reaching across to the battlements; at left a file of soldiers in red swings a long battering ram at the wall beside a square gate tower, a mound of shields presses against the masonry, and a lone soldier crosses the green ground in front. The lower image shows a modern assault: officers on dark and gray horses, one in a bicorne pointing the way, a horseman in a red cloak with his saber raised, a dismounted cannon, a fallen horse and a soldier in blue and red lying in the foreground, and a brick bastion flying a red flag half hidden in clouds of gunsmoke.

The top margin is lettered "Tom. IV" at left, "EUROPA" in the center and "Tav. 2" at right. The upper caption reads "Antico assalto d'una Città" (Ancient assault on a city) and the lower one "Moderno assalto d' una Città" (Modern assault on a city).

Mobile towers and rams were the standard tools for breaching walls in the ancient world, letting attackers reach the top of a wall or batter through it under cover. By the period of the lower scene, artillery had taken their place, and fortifications were built low and angled into bastions to withstand cannon fire, as the fortress in the background shows.

The two scenes read as a single comparison, which makes the plate a good fit for a study, a library or a collection of military prints.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.