The Rape of the Sabine Women, 1637-1638
"The legendary rape of the Sabine women is the subject of two oil paintings by Nicolas Poussin. The first version was painted in Rome about 1634 or 1635 and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, catalogued as The Abduction of the Sabine Women. The second, painted in 1637 or 1638, is in the Louvre in Paris, catalogued as L'enlèvement des Sabines. The theme of kidnapping was very successful in Renaissance and Baroque art. Among the legendary episodes relating rapes, kidnappings or abductions may be mentioned those of Helen by Paris, of Europa by Zeus, of Deianeira by the centaur Nessus, and of Proserpina by Pluto; the latter was sculpted by Bernini (1621–1622). Beginning in the quattrocento, scenes of the abduction and reconciliation of the Sabine women were often figured on Tuscan cassoni (wedding chests), probably as domestic instruction for brides. Shortly after Poussin arrived in Rome in 1624, Pietro da Cortona painted a celebrated picture of the abduction (c. 1630), which was possibly influenced by such cassoni, and which in turn influenced Poussin. ..."
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