Picturing History

In this chapter, Jeremy Tanner examines two series of images—one from Classical Athens and one from Han China—of political assassinations, more specifically “tyrannicides.” These images were replicated, with interesting variations, time and time again, and must have been among the more popular and recognizable iconographies of their eras. Both are concerned with figuring the limits of legitimate power and the ethical basis for and significance of violent resistance to arbitrary power and its overthrow. In order to interpret these images in a comparative frame, Tanner finds that he must also explore the concept of the “tyrant” in order to construct a conceptual catwalk between these two contexts. The very project of comparison, then, helps bring to the surface some of the intricacies of the lives of concepts in particular places.