Nicolas Poussin - The abduction of the Sabine women

• Title: The abduction of the Sabine women
• Artist: Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
• Date: 1637
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 159 x 206 cm

“The abduction of the Sabine women” depicts the legendary story of the founding of Rome, in which the city’s founders, the twins Romulus and Remus, and their followers abducted the women of the neighboring Sabine tribe in order to secure wives and establish a population.

This painting is the second major version of the same subject by Poussin- this one is from 1637-38 while the first is from 1635 and is at the Met in New York. This version is more dramatic and enrapturing- the architectural setting of the work is more developed giving more space and more depth for the scene to unravel; a general movement of dispersion splits the painting in two across a diagnoal more or less aligned with the vanishing point of the painting; an old woman begging on her knees in front of Romulus creates a diagonal and immobility which goes opposite to the general movement of dispersion; the brushstroke is more loose and determined giving more of a sense of movement, à la Titian.