Description
Shortly after Rome was founded, the Romans abducted the women of the neighboring Sabines to be their wives. During the ensuing war, the Sabine women intervened, making peace between the two sides. Painted in Naples, this canvas seems to be the last of four versions of the subject painted by Johann Schönfeld (two in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, another in a private collection).
Provenance
Anne Lise Thomasen, Copenhagen (1930).; (Galerie Grünwald; Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
Accession Number
1982.143
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 129 x 178 x 7.5 cm (50 13/16 x 70 1/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 110 x 160 cm (43 5/16 x 63 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas German
Background & Context
Background Story
Johann Heinrich Schonfeld (1609-1684) was a German painter known for the dynamic, dramatically composed history paintings that make him one of the most important painters of the German Baroque. The Abduction of the Sabine Women from c. 1640 depicts the famous story of the abduction of the Sabine women in the dynamic, dramatically composed manner that distinguishes Schonfeld's best work from the more restrained painting of his German contemporaries. The c. 1640 date places this in Schonfeld's most productive period, when he was producing the dynamic, dramatically composed history paintings that are his most accomplished works, and the Sabine Women subject shows his talent for depicting dramatic narrative with dynamic composition.
Cultural Impact
The Abduction of the Sabine Women is important in the history of German Baroque painting because it demonstrates the dynamic, dramatically composed manner that Schonfeld brought to history painting as one of the most important painters of the German Baroque. Schonfeld's dynamic, dramatically composed history paintings—combining the narrative drama of the Baroque with the dynamic composition that is his most distinctive contribution—represent one of the most important traditions in German Baroque painting, and the c. 1640 painting shows this tradition at its most dynamic.
Why It Matters
The Abduction of the Sabine Women is Schonfeld's dynamic German Baroque: the famous story rendered in the dramatically composed manner of one of the most important painters of the German Baroque. The c. 1640 painting shows the combination of narrative drama with dynamic composition that makes Schonfeld one of the most important German Baroque painters.
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