Catapulta

Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1868, this large canvas depicts a Roman catapult in operation during a siege, a subject that allowed Poynter to combine his interests in ancient military technology, archaeological reconstruction, and crowd composition. The late 1860s were a period of intense public interest in ancient warfare, partly stimulated by the ongoing excavations at Roman military sites across Britain and the Empire. Poynter researched the mechanics of ancient artillery carefully, and the catapult depicted appears accurate to known Roman design. The subject differed from his contemporaries' preference for domestic ancient life: where Alma-Tadema painted bathers and flower-strewers, Poynter chose the unromantic spectacle of military engineering. Now held in the North East Museums collection, the painting documents the Victorian fascination with the Roman imperial machine as a precursor — and implicit validation — of British imperial ambition.

The compositional challenge was presenting a large piece of military machinery alongside human figures in a way that preserved the scale relationships and communicated both the technology's power and the men operating it. Poynter resolves this by placing the machine in middle distance and grouping soldiers around it as operators, spectators, and officers. The dust and atmospheric haze of the siege setting are handled more loosely than his interior subjects, suggesting he allowed himself greater painterly freedom in exterior, action-heavy compositions.