(The Rape of the Sabine Women by Nicolas Poussin was created between 1634 and 1635 in Rome. It was commissioned by the Cardinal Luigi Omedei. It can be viewed now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is necessary to specify that the word “rape” in the title of this painting refers to abduction, not sexual assault.)
The Rape of the Sabine Women depicts the climax of a story in Roman history that isn’t often shared around the family fireplace; small wonder since the bad guy not only gets the girl but world dominance to boot. Try fashioning a cautionary tale against theft, violence and murder most foul with that ending. This is a plot scheme Disney wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Still, a very interesting story none-the-less.
The story unfolds when the male founders of the ancient Roman Empire failed to convince their Sabine neighbors to allow their daughters to intermarry with them. The Romans response to this rejection was far from chivalrous. They desired to create an empire and wives being a necessary component of this plan, they plotted to aquire them with a no-nonsense approach.
It is here, under the ruse of attending a peaceful feast hosted by the Romans that the Sabines found themselves in a bit of a pickle, a legendary and brutal pickle. The Roman leader, depicted in red, gives the signal and at once the Roman soldiers fall upon the Sabine women snatching them from their husbands, fathers, mothers, and children. Those family members who desperately but ineffectually resisted were killed on the spot. A violent and bloody scene to be sure.
The afterstory is a bit more positive. While quite violent in the act of the actual kidnapping, the Roman soldiers went on to treat these women whom they kidnapped with respect that was unparalleled for the time. They were offered full rights of citizenship within their new status of wives of Roman citizens and mothers of the future Roman empire. I would have found this feeble consolation to having to live my life with my husband’s murderer but legend tells us the women eventually embraced their new rights, their new lives and their new families that they had had little choice in forming. Perhaps, in another time, I would have reacted the same; it is impossible to say. Still, the legend fascinates.
The story itself draws interest (violence, drama, sex, human rights – who said ancient history is dull?) but so does the style of the painting which communicates a good deal. The style is very naturalistic and classicizing as well as being very clear and legible even though the scene is depicting a frenzy of action. This can be seen as a result of the mandate through the Council of Trent that all art be direct, legible and completely accessible to the audience. The scene is kept clean and clear throughout the chaos as Poussin keeps everything very organized. In my opinion, a little too organized.
While I find the painting beautiful and fascinating, I also find the marked attention to rigid orderliness, especially in the architecture set in the background to the right, somewhat insipid. It is distracting as I try to take in the painting as a whole. The alternating light and shadows give a sense of rhythm in all the dramatic movement but there, that building stands, a sore, boring thumb in the middle of so much attention to detail. The experience is much the same when you attend a low budget play complete with tacky backdrops only to find the acting transcends the rest and you enjoy yourself regardless. Still you wonder, how great would it have been if only the backdrop hadn’t been quite so shabby?
Sources:
1. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The Rape of the Sabine Women. Retrieved on June 19, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rape_of_the_Sabine_Women.
2. Smart History. Poussin’s Landscape with St. John (1640) and the Rape of the Sabines (1635) (video clip). Retrieved on June 19, 2009 from http://smarthistory.org/poussin.html.
WHAT IS THIS? I just discovered it. You somehow failed to direct me this way. I’m pretty psyched that you have a blog…
You did a great job in explaining and bringing out the meaning of this art. It is absolutely fascinating to me that our world history is told so clearly thru art. I am sure this painting would be all that more impressive seen in the museum; where the texture of the colors would be more brilliant. I see this style of art communicating the importance of physical power in this time period. Literally, the strongest man gets the most beautiful woman to breed an empire with. It seems the Church commissions this type of art with a parell to the bible dealing with mankind struggle between the dark evil side versus the rightest and justice side of humans.
I completely agree with you that the background resembles a backdrop to a play. When I saw it, I found that it was reminescent of the backdrops in the old 30′s and 40′s movies where the scenes in the back were generally less dynamic and rather muted. Perhaps this was done on purpose to draw the viewers eye away from any distrations, so that they can focus on the barbaric scene up front. Overall, I think you made a clear connection to the Council of Trent and how it influenced the style of the painting. I also hadn’t paid much attention to the background and how it works with the peice as a whole until you pointed it out, so thanks!
An interesting choice. All the assignment stuff is there, but I do think you played down the rape thing. Considering how women were seen at the time, I doubt if they were treated with any respect what so ever. I think the Catholics were just playing their history the way they wanted it to be. They wanted to be descended from men of culture and status who were merely forced to deal with a tough decision. Not to be born from outcasts and thieves who stole their “wives” and forced themselves on innocent women. The post is good though.
If you look at similar pieces of art around this time, and earlier, the use of the word rape in the title often, not always, refers to the act of kidnapping. It is not me downplaying rape at all but simply acknowledging that that was not the meaning they were going for. Not to say rape did not happen later on but that is not what this particular scene was about. It is about the abduction. And as I agree that kidnapping is hardly conducive to active respect you have to take into account the culture of the day and what was considered respect then as opposed to now. The women were given citizen rights which they did not have before in their Sabine community and which the women eventually came to highly value. In order to understand history one has to somewhat detach themselves from the established viewpoints our culture takes for granted and delve into what past cultures considered as acceptable.
I really enjoyed reading about the extensive history of this piece and what you thought about it. You gave a decisive opinion about this piece as well as why you liked it. This is a very chaotic scene. Its really sad that things like this in history occurred though. I do not see this as a good thing at all (even if they weren’t raped) but just to be taken away from home like that and forced into something would have made life tougher than it already was.
I think we can all agree with some certainty that it was not a “good thing”. It is depicting an incredibly brutal event. I am in no way saying it is a jolly story or I find rape a light subject. I think it is important to note that just because a story is portrayed in art does not mean the artist, nor those who admire the art produced, are condoning the behavior depicted. It is however a beautiful painting that is obviously still evoking a fair amount of emotion today. Thanks for the comment.
This is such a great painting! I love the color, the action, the pain on the womens faces. Not in a bad way of course. The detail is amazing! I agree with you when you say that the building in the background is just kind of sitting there and looks like it doesnt belong. what do you think Poussin was thinking when he put that there?
Secondly, I like that you mentioned what the intentions of the kidnapping was. I know just looking at it and not researching it, youd think the women would get treated poorly but you answered that question! And i agree, i do not agree with rape or kidnapping. This painting shows the pain and the fear the women felt and the children with them.
Very good job on telling about the artist, this painting and talking about others from Poussin.
The depth of history you went in to really helped me understand the piece, as did your analysis. The emotion is quite evident after you talked about the work. There is so much happening in this painting it is hard to take it in all at once, though the theme is evident. I believe at this time Ferdinand III was emperor, which makes sense as he was in power during the time of the Holy Roman Empire. This was a very descriptive analysis and I appreciated it very much.
I think the history behind this picture is so gory and real and utilizes the “realism” factor very well that was beginning during the late Renaissance. This explains the savage behavior that continued to exist in the Roman empire during this time. The savageness is exposed in the visual arts that were made regarding this era. It goes to show that there was a large amount of time from when art began to this — the time period is vast and there had been so much horrid things that happened as a result of expression through visual arts.