Previati was a pioneer of Italian symbolism and a member of the Italian Divisionist movement. Studying under Gerolamo Domenichini and Giovanni Pagliarini at the Scuola di Belle Arti di Ferrara in 1870, he visited Amos Cassioli's atelier in Florence before completing his formative years at the Academy of Belle Arti di Brera under Giuseppe Bertini. Academic methods that contrast the four historical subjects of the Settanta and Ottanta eras gradually replace them with scientific and luminous paintings based on scapigliati examples, which in 1889 evolved toward divisionism after a confrontation with Vittore Grubicy. This painting is regarded as Previati's first successful opera. The subject is a famous incident in the history of the Siege of Crema, which Federico Barbarossa wrote about between 1159 and 1160. In order to force the city to submit, Frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, bound Italian prisoners to the front of his moving siege tower. Choosing sacrifice over oppression, the hostages bravely gave the order for their own people to fire on the tower. The rebels' torsos are brutally illuminated by a sharp, dramatic light source, but the image is dominated by a deep, murky obscurity. As a psychological weapon, this strong contrast light highlights the figures' physical heft and anguish. A brilliant, fiery sunset or dawn can be seen barely beyond a fortress wall on the far left, where a low horizon is visible. Perhaps representing a far-off hope or the beginning of a new age formed out of the rebels' sacrifice, this sliver of light stands in sharp contrast to the darkness.

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