Roman mythology cites April 21, 753 BC as the founding date of the city. April 21 marks the
Par Ilia, Festival of Pales, Goddess of Shepherds and 753 BC, determined by Roman antiquarian Titus Atticus was adopted by the Varronian Chronology. The founders, according the mythology, were twin brothers Romulus and Remus, sons of Rhea Silvia of Alba Longa and the and the god Mars, who were abandoned at birth and raised by a she-wolf. The brothers were determined to found a city on the Palatine Hill, the location of the Lupercal Cave of their adoptive mother. However, during a quarrel, Romulus killed Remus and thus Rome was founded in the wake of fratricide, setting the stage for a violent history; one which includes the legendary "Abduction of the Sabine Women."
Following the founding, the Romans wished to ensure
the future prosperity of the city but were faced with a lack of women required to provide offspring. Despite pleas to their neighboring states to allow inter-marriage, all were declined in a likely attempt to weaken the Roman settlement. Romulus then plotted a mass abduction of the women of their neighboring tribe, the Sabines, and invited several tribes to a feast where he would levy a surprise attack on Sabine men and capture the women.
The following excerpt is taken from
Ab Urbe Condita Libri (From the Founding of the City), written by Roman Historian Livy (64 BC - 12 AD).
"The Roman State had now become so strong that it
was a match for any of its neighbors in war, but its greatness
threatened to last for only one generation, since through the absence of
women there was no hope of offspring, and there was no right of
intermarriage with their neighbors. Acting on the advice of the senate,
Romulus sent envoys amongst the surrounding nations to ask for alliance
and the right of intermarriage on behalf of his new community.…
As to the origin of Rome, it was well known that whilst it had
received divine assistance, courage and self-reliance were not wanting.
There should, therefore, be no reluctance for men to mingle their blood
with their fellow-men. Nowhere did the envoys meet with a favorable
reception….
The Roman youth could ill brook such insults, and matters began to
look like an appeal to force. To secure a favorable place and time for
such an attempt, Romulus, disguising his resentment, made elaborate
preparations for the celebration of games in honor of "Equestrian
Neptune," which he called "the Consualia."...
There was a great gathering; people were eager to see the new City,
all their nearest neighbors … and the whole Sabine population came,
with their wives and families. They were invited to accept hospitality
at the different houses, and after examining the situation of the City,
its walls and the large number of dwelling-houses it included, they were
astonished at the rapidity with which the Roman State had grown.
When the hour for the games had come, and their eyes and minds were
alike riveted on the spectacle before them, the pre-concerted signal was
given and the Roman youth dashed in all directions to carry off the
maidens who were present. The larger part were carried off
indiscriminately….
Alarm and consternation broke up the games, and the parents of the
maidens fled, distracted with grief, uttering bitter reproaches on the
violators of the laws of hospitality and appealing to the god to whose
solemn games they had come, only to be the victims of impious perfidy.
The abducted maidens were quite as despondent and indignant. Romulus,
however, went round in person, and pointed out to them that it was all
owing to the pride of their parents in denying right of intermarriage to
their neighbors. They would live in honorable wedlock, and share all
their property and civil rights, and--dearest of all to human
nature-would be the mothers of freemen.
The plan was successful and the Romans secured the next generation of the nation. However, three years later,
the Sabines attacked Rome in revenge. But according to legend, the abducted women, - now wed to and mothers to - Romans, intervened by physically standing between the men of the warring tribes thus preventing conflict.
Livy continues:
"Then it was that the Sabine women, whose wrongs had
led to the war, throwing off all womanish fears in their distress, went
boldly into the midst of the flying missiles with dishevelled hair and
rent garments. Running across the space between the two armies they
tried to stop any further fighting and calm the excited passions by
appealing to their fathers in the one army and their husbands in the
other not to bring upon themselves a curse by staining their hands with
the blood of a father-in-law or a son-in-law, nor upon their posterity
the taint of parricide. "If," they cried, " you are weary of these ties
of kindred, these marriage-bonds, then turn your anger upon us; it is we
who are the cause of the war, it is we who have wounded and slain our
husbands and fathers. Better for us to perish rather than live without
one or the other of you, as widows or as orphans."
The story of the abduction and subsequent intervention of the Sabine women is one of the most frequently depicted in Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, and Romantic art. Abduction themes allowed artists to merge male and female body forms, conveying a wide variety of expression. Artists could render subjects relative to surrounding space in a way to maximize opportunity to provide a three-dimensional effect. Within the same movements, we see numerous depictions of other abduction stories (Helen by Paris, Europa by Zeus, Deianira by the centaur Nessus, Persephone by Hades), but that of the Sabine Women is the most recurrent. Several artists even created as many as six known repetitions of the scene, often highlighting the evolution of their methods and styles.
A wonderful archive of works depicting the Abduction of the Sabines can be found
Here.
For this post, I chose 15 of my favorite works.
*Numbers 11 and 12 (the Vincent and the David, both Neoclassical in style, are depictions of the
Intervention of the Sabine women vice the
Abduction. Perhaps the legend of a war avoided was more reflective of sentiment as the French Revolution began to unfold.
1. Giuseppe Porta - The Rape of the Sabine Women (approx. 1550) - Bowes Museum/London
Style: Mannerism
2. Giambologna - Abduction of a Sabine Woman (1583) - Loggia dei Lanzi/Florence
Style: Mannerism
3. Francesco Bassano - Ratto delle Sabine (1590) - Sabauda Gallery/Turin
Style: Mannerism. Venetian Renaissance
4. Jacopo Ligozzi - Ratto delle Sabine approx. 1610 - Privately Owned
Style: Mannerism
5. Pietro da Cortona - The Rape of the Sabine Women (1629) - Pinacoteca Capitolina/Rome
Style: Baroque
6. Nicolas Poussin - L'Enlèvement des Sabines (1635) - Metropolitan/NYC
Style: French Baroque
7. Peter Paul Rubens - L'Enlèvement des Sabines (1640) - Brussels
Style: Flemish Baroque
8. Johann Heinrich Schoenfeld - Der Raub der Sabinerinnen (1640) - Hermitage Museum/St. Petersburg
Style: Baroque
9. Luca Giordano - Ratto delle Sabine (1674) - Art Institute/Chicago
Style: Baroque
10. Niccolò Bambini - Rape of the Sabine Women (1700s) - Unknown Location
Style: Baroque
11. François-André Vincent - Combat des Romains et des Sabins Interrompu par les Femmes Sabines (1781) - Musée des Beaux-Arts/Montpellier
Style: Neo-Classical
12. Jacques-Louis David - Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799) - Louvre/Paris
Style: Neo-Classical
13. Eugène Delacroix - Rape of the Sabine Women (1850) - Louvre/Paris
Style: Romanticism, Early Impressionism
14. Francisco Pradillo Ortiz - El Rapto de las Sabinas (1874) - Madrid
Style: Impressionism
15. Pablo Picasso - El Rapto da las Sabinas (1962) - Privately Owned
Style: Surrealism
