Rape of the Sabine Women

Image credit: Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives

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Luca Giordano revelled in the opportunity to paint large, dramatic compositions that allowed full play to his powers of swift and vigorous execution. 'Fa Presto' (quickly does it) was his nickname. The story of 'The Rape of the Sabines' is taken from accounts of the building of Rome by the historians Livy and Plutarch. Romulus, the city's founder, was anxious to establish a secure basis for the city's future population. He therefore arranged a festival and invited all the inhabitants of neighbouring settlements. At a given signal during the celebrations the young men of Rome broke into the crowd and, choosing only the unmarried Sabine women, bore them off to be their wives. Giordano suceeded his master Ribera as the most significant artist of the Neapolitan school of the High Baroque in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Bristol

Title

Rape of the Sabine Women

Date

c.1675

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 242.8 x W 313.8 cm

Accession number

K2880

Acquisition method

purchased, 1962

Work type

Painting

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