The Rape of the Sabine Women (Poussin)

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).

[4][5] 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.

[9] The group to the right of the Metropolitan picture recalls The Galatian Suicide,[c] a 2nd century AD Roman marble after a lost Greek original, which had been recently unearthed during excavations for the redevelopment of the Villa Ludovisi, and was engraved by François Perrier.

Romulus, its founder and king, stands on an elevation at the left side between two columns, holding a royal wand in one hand and raising the skirt of his robe with the other; the latter motion being the signal for every Roman to seize a Sabine wife.

[1] Belonged to the Maréchal Charles de Créquy, who was French ambassador to Rome in the 1630s; and then to King Louis XIII's chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu,[1] who probably bequeathed it to his niece, the Duchess d'Aiguillon.

He is dressed in military attire and in the act of raising the skirt of his robe, at which preconcerted signal every soldier has seized a Sabine woman, and a scene of confusion and strife has succeeded the festive games.

Further towards the right side is a group composed of an aged woman sitting on the ground sheltering between her knees a young girl whom a youth by entreaty, seconded by a little force, is endeavouring to obtain.