Rape of a Sabine Woman
Medium
Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in gray-brown
Dimensions
Sheet: 17 3/16 × 7 15/16 in. (43.7 × 20.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1922
Accession Number
22.73.3-70
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late Renaissance, Andrea Andreani, a masterful Italian printmaker, captured the dramatic intensity of Giambologna's Mannerist sculpture *Rape of a Sabine* in this 1584 chiaroscurocut. Drawing from the ancient Roman legend where Roman men abducted Sabine women to secure Rome's future, the print depicts a muscular male figure dynamically hoisting a struggling nude woman—emblematic of Giambologna's swirling, anatomically precise compositions that emphasized movement and emotion over classical harmony. Andreani's technique shines through his innovative use of three gray-brown woodblocks, c...