Abduction of the Sabine Women by Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin (1594 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a small group of Italian and French collectors. He briefly returned to Paris to serve as First Painter to the King under Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, but soon returned to Rome and resumed his traditional themes. In his later years he gave growing prominence to the landscapes in his pictures. His work is characterized by clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. Until the 20th century he remained a major inspiration for such classically-oriented artists as Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Paul Cézanne. One of his early major themes was the “Rape of the Sabine Women,” recounting how the King of Rome, Romulus, wanting wives for his soldiers, invited the members of the neighboring Sabine tribe for a festival, and then, on his signal, kidnapped all of the women. Romulus raised his cloak as the prearranged signal for the warriors to seize the Sabine women. The mother, her babies, and an old woman in the foreground were captured accidentally in the turmoil. The yellow armor worn by the man at the right is modeled after a Roman ‘lorica,’ which was made of leather and reproduced the anatomy of the male torso. Poussin painted two versions, one in 1634, now in the Metropolitan Museum, and the other in 1637, now in the Louvre.1634/Metropolitan Museum, USA