Full title | The Rape of the Sabines (before the signal) |
---|---|
Artist | Domenico Morone |
Artist dates | about 1442 - after 1518 |
Series | Two Cassone Panels with the Rape of the Sabines |
Date made | about 1490 |
Medium and support | Tempera on spruce |
Dimensions | 45.4 x 49.2 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1886 |
Inventory number | NG1211 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
Shortly after the founding of their city, the ancient Romans were faced with a serious problem: they had no wives, and therefore no children and no future. Their leader Romulus came up with an inventive and unscrupulous solution: they hosted celebratory games and invited their neighbours, the Sabines, to bring their families. At a given signal, the Romans seized the young Sabine women, carried them off and married them.
Appalled at this barbarous behaviour, the Sabines waged war, but the abducted women intervened to stop the fighting. Peace was declared, and according to the Roman historian Livy, ‘they made one people out of two’.
This painting is one of two from the front of a cassone, a large decorated chest that was an important piece of domestic furniture during the Italian Renaissance. The Roman games are shown as a contemporary joust, with spectators in fifteenth-century dress.
Shortly after the founding of their city, the ancient Romans were faced with a serious problem: they had no wives, and therefore no children and no future. Their leader Romulus came up with an inventive and unscrupulous solution: they hosted celebratory games and invited their neighbours, the Sabines, to bring their families. At a given signal, the Romans seized the young Sabine women, carried them off and married them. Appalled at this barbarous behaviour, the Sabines waged war, but the abducted women intervened to stop the fighting. Peace was declared, and according the Roman historian Livy, ‘they made one people out of two’.
This painting is one of two from the front of a cassone, a large decorated chest that was an important piece of domestic furniture throughout Italy during the Renaissance. Cassoni were often associated with marriages, and adorned with scenes appropriate to a family environment, giving moral lessons and establishing what were then thought to be proper role models for husbands, wives and children.
Here, in the first scene, the games are shown as a joust, watched by spectators in fifteenth-century dress, with occasional classical details. In the background, the walls of Rome enclose a construction site: barren ground and a building covered in scaffolding. In the foreground, knights in armour charge each other; one on a black horse knocks another to the ground. Around them, mounted squires carry spare lances and shields, and a trumpeter blows a trumpet. A small banner hangs from the instrument labelled ‘S.P.Q.[R]’, which stands for senatus populusque romanus (the senate and people of Rome).
The men are positioned at the front of the stands while the young women, their future victims, are seated on rows of raised benches under a red awning. In the centre Romulus, wearing a toga and a crown, sits on a throne surrounded by his entourage. In front of him, three men seated at a green table act as referees.
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The Rape of the Sabines (before the signal)
Two Cassone Panels with the Rape of the Sabines
These panels come from the front of a cassone, a large chest that was often painted with narrative scenes. Such chests were widely made throughout Italy from about 1400 to the early sixteenth century. They were often associated with marriages, and were one of the items of furniture that a groom was expected to acquire for his home in expectation of his bride.
The decoration of cassoni often reflected this link, providing what were felt to be examples of appropriate behaviour for husbands, wives and children, drawn from classical literature or history. The tale shown here, of how the early Romans abducted women when they couldn't find wives, was part of ancient Roman history. It was recounted by Livy and Plutarch, both of whom were translated into Italian in the fifteenth century.
The panels are painted on two horizontal planks of spruce. They have been cut along their side edges and may originally have been joined together.
These panels come from the front of a cassone, a large and highly decorative chest that was painted with narrative scenes. Such chests were widely made throughout Italy from about 1400 to the early sixteenth century. They were often associated with marriages, and were one of the items of furniture that a groom was expected to acquire for his home in expectation of his bride.
The decoration of cassoni often reflected this link, providing examples of what were felt to be appropriate behaviour for husbands, wives and children, drawn from classical literature or history, as in Cassone Panels with Scenes from the Life of Trajan. The tale shown here, of how the early Romans abducted women when they couldn't find wives, was part of ancient Roman history. It was recounted by Livy and Plutarch, both of whom were translated into Italian during the fifteenth century. Domenico Morone seems to have based his depiction on Plutarch, perhaps on Battista Alessandro Giaconello’s translation, published in Aquila in 1482.
The panels are painted on two horizontal planks of spruce. They have been cut along their side edges and may originally have been joined together. It’s hard to say how much has been lost, but their original dimensions were probably comparable with those of Dido’s Suicide by Liberale da Verona. It may be that the heraldry of the two families was shown on either side of the chest, with the new coat of arms of the bridal couple in the middle.


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