Period: 17th century
SOLD Painting, oil on canvas, dimensions 105 x 130 cm without frame and 125 x 155 cm with a wonderful carved and gilded frame from the early 17th century, depicting the actual episode of the Rape of the Sabine Women. The Rape of the Sabine Women is one of the oldest events in the history of Rome, shrouded in legend. According to tradition, Romulus, after founding Rome, turned to neighboring populations to forge alliances and obtain women with whom to procreate and populate the new city. When the neighbors refused, he responded with deception: he organized a grand spectacle to attract the inhabitants of the region and kidnapped their women; Romulus planned the rape to somehow constitute the beginning of the fusion between the Romans and the Sabines. The Roman youth did not take it well, so the emerging solution was to use force. Romulus, instead, in the third year of his reign, decided to conceal his resentment and stage solemn games, called Consualia, dedicated to the god Consus. He then ordered his men to invite neighboring peoples to the spectacle: from the Ceninenses, to the Antemnates, Crustumini, and Sabines, the latter settled on the nearby Quirinal Hill. The goal was to carry out a gigantic kidnapping of their women right in the middle of the show. Many people arrived, with children (including many virgins and consorts, also out of a desire to see the new city). Romulus took his place in the crowd and, at the agreed signal, together with his men, drew their swords and captured the daughters of the Ceninenses, Crustumini, Antemnates, and Sabines, letting their fathers flee, who abandoned the city promising revenge. Some say that only thirty girls were kidnapped, Valerio Anziate five hundred and twenty-seven, Juba II six hundred and eighty-three, while Plutarch estimates that there were no fewer than eight hundred. In Romulus's favor was the fact that no married woman was kidnapped, except for Ersilia alone, whose condition they ignored. The rape was explained by Plutarch not so much as a gesture of pride, but rather as an act of necessity, in order to mix the two peoples. The rape took place on August 21, the day the Consualia festivals were celebrated. Of the peoples who had suffered the affront, the Ceninenses were defeated first, then the Antemnates, and the Crustumini, whose resistance lasted even less than their allies. Once the military operations were completed, the new king of Rome ordered some colonists to be sent to the new conquered territories. The last attack on Rome was that of the Sabines, as Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus tell us, who first took the Capitoline Hill, with the betrayal of Tarpeia, then engaged the Romans in a very harsh battle in the Battle of Lake Curzio. It was at this moment that the Sabine women, who had been previously kidnapped by the Romans, threw themselves under a rain of projectiles between the opposing factions to divide the contenders and appease their anger. With this gesture, both sides stopped and decided to collaborate, stipulating a peace treaty, on the road that for this reason from then on would be called Via Sacra, launching the union between the two peoples with commonality of power and citizenship, associating the two kingdoms (that of Romulus and Titus Tatius), letting the city where all the decision-making power was now transferred continue to be called Rome, even though all Romans were called Curiti (in memory of Titus Tatius's native homeland, which was Cures) which thus saw its population doubled. The work, like all our objects, is sold accompanied by a FIMA photographic certificate of authenticity and lawful origin; this document identifies the object, adding value to the item. We personally handle and organize the packaging and shipping of works of art with insurance worldwide. Dr. Riccardo Moneghini Art Historian