Priam asks Achilles to return Hector's body

Ivanov employs chiaroscuro to create a dramatic atmosphere, contrasting warm tones in the figures' clothing with cool tones in the background, and using light and dark contrasts to heighten the emotional tension of the scene.

Completed early in Ivanov's career, the painting is now held in the Tretyakov Gallery, while the artist's later work was dominated by his prolonged refinement of The Appearance of Christ Before the People.