Fall of Nineveh

Despite Jonah's preaching, the Ninevites resumed their depravity, with cataclysmic results. As told in the Book of Nahum, the Tigris burst its banks and devoured Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. John Martin used the smoky tonalities of mezzotint to depict a swirling, seething Day of Judgment in which the women seem to melt in the searing totality of God's fury.