Le PASSAGE D'ANNIBAL. Dans ces monts sourcilleux dont la neige aigrette Semble un front chenu de géant, Pour se faire un chemin, Annibal triomphant Mil les Alpes en vinaigrette. Les Occidentales de Mr. Quinet.

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1842

In this print we see Hannibal, the great general, contemplating over a jar of pickles. History has it that he used vinegar to blow up the ice and rocks in winter for his army to pass through the Alps. During the 1840's, a quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.