Type: Limited edition prints
Size: 48cm x 33cm
Tirage: 100 copies
A pencil drawing of Romulus, a detail of the painting “The Intervention of the Sabine Women” by the French painter Jacques-Louis David made in 1799, showing a legendary episode following the abduction of the Sabine women by the founding generation of Rome.
A vigorous Romulus is depicted as he prepares to strike a half-retreating Tatius with his spear, but hesitates. He is depicted from the obverse, naked, wearing only a helmet and his shield on his left hand.
The Abduction of the Sabine Women is an episode in the legendary history of Rome, traditionally said to have taken place in 750 BC, in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families.
Fearing the emergence of a rival society, the Sabines refused to allow their women to marry the Romans. Consequently, the Romans planned to abduct Sabine women, during a festival of Neptune Equester and proclaimed the festival among Rome's neighbours. At the festival Romulus gave a signal, at which the Romans grabbed the Sabine women and fought off the Sabine men. The indignant abductees were soon implored by Romulus to accept Roman husbands.
In the ensuing war, once Rome gained the upper hand, the Sabine women intervened and implored the two warring parties to reconcile.
The painting depicts the height of the conflict, when Hersilia, a Sabine girl, daughter of Titus Tatius, leader of the Sabines, who had become the wife of the Roman General Romulus, throws herself between the combatants (their Roman husbands and avenging Sabine brothers and fathers) and pleaded successfully for an end to this internecine bloodshed.
A moment of compassion in a time of conflict.
In this painting David contrasted the violence of the rape with the pacification of the intervention. The image of family conflict in the Sabines was a metaphor of the revolutionary process which had now culminated in peace and reconciliation. The painting was a tribute to Madame David, and a recognition of the power of women as peacemakers.
His increasingly simple style is inspired by Ancient Greece.
