The Rape of the Sabine Women
Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734)
c. 1700
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Sebastiano Ricci was the first Venetian artist of real distinction since the renaissance, and in that sense the founder of its eighteenth-century greatness, paving the way above all for Giambattista Tiepolo. His true master was Paolo Veronese (1528–88), whose blond tonalities and light-hearted approach to mythological and historical subjects he devotedly but never slavishly emulated. He travelled far and wide, in the process achieving a spectacular pan-European fame, as is triumphantly apparent in his commission from Lord Burlington for the staircase of Burlington House – now the Royal Academy – off Piccadilly in the heart of London, for which he executed four mythologies.
This pair of monumental canvases, ‘The Rape of the Sabine Women’ and ‘The Battle of the Romans and Sabines’, was acquired in Vienna by Prince Johann I von Liechtenstein in 1819, and nothing is known of their previous history. However, since they may be dated to around 1700 on stylistic grounds, it is tempting to suppose that they were painted in Vienna, where Ricci was at work on a grandiose ceiling fresco representing an ‘Allegory of the Princely Virtues’ for the Blue Staircase at Schloss Schönbrunn around 1701–02. If so, they might even have been an imperial commission, and must – given their immense scale – presumably have been painted for a major patron.
While the ‘Rape of the Sabine Women’ is a relatively common subject in art, the ‘Battle’, which represents a later moment in the story (the children are the consequences of the ‘Rape’), is not. For the former, Ricci employed an extremely famous earlier treatment by the Roman painter Pietro da Cortona, now in the Musei Capitolini there, as his model (the most interesting addition is the strangely disembodied foreground still life), whereas the second composition is of his own devising, for all that the prominent warrior in profile on the left is adapted from the classical marble known as the ‘Borghese Gladiator’. Be that as it may, both canvases share a common taste for heaving chests and exposed breasts set in a conveniently historically remote antiquity.
- Material/technique
- oil on canvas, unlined
- Measurements
- 197 × 304 cm
- Acquisition
- acquired in 1819 by Prince Johann I von Liechtenstein
- Currently exhibited
- Garden Palace, permanent presentation
- Artists/makers/authors
- Sebastiano Ricci
- Inventory number
- GE 245
- Provenance
- acquired in 1819 by Prince Johann I von Liechtenstein from Giovanni Querci della Rovere, Bergamo
- Iconography
- The Rape of the Sabine Women
Jacob von Falke, Katalog der fürstlich Liechtensteinischen Bilder-Galerie im Gartenpalais der Rossau zu Wien, Wien 1873 , S. 50, Kat. 420
Jacob von Falke, Katalog der fürstlich Liechtensteinischen Bilder-Galerie im Gartenpalais der Rossau zu Wien, Wien 1885, S. 35, Kat. 245
J. von Derschau, Sebastiano Ricci. Ein Beitrag zu den Anfängen der venezianischen Rokokomalerei, Heidelberg 1922, S. 163, Nr. 21a (als irrtümlich Sebastiano Ricci zugeschrieben), S. 165, Abb. 151
Jeffery Daniels, L'opera completa di Sebastiano Ricci (Classici dell'Arte, 89), Mailand 1976, S. 98, Nr. 126, Abb. 126
Jeffery Daniels, Sebastiano Ricci, Hove 1976, S. 152, Nr. 527a, Abb. 362
Ausst.-Kat. Venezianische Kunst in der Schweiz und in Liechtenstein, erschienen Mailand 1978, S. 144-145, Kat. 105
Fondation Suisse Pro Venetia (Hg.), Art Venitien en Suisse et au Liechtenstein
Pfäffikon 18 juin - 27 aout 1978
Genéve, Musée d´art et d´istoire
13 septembre - 5 novembre 1978, Zürich-Mailand 1978, 144, Kat. 105
Reinhold Baumstark, Meisterwerke der Sammlungen des Fürsten von Liechtenstein. Gemälde, Zürich–München 1980, S. 60, Kat.-Nr. 23, Tafel 23
Keith Christiansen, Ausst.-Kat. Liechtenstein. The Princely Collections, New York 1985, S. 222-223, Kat. 142
Ausst.-Kat. Fünf Jahrhunderte italienische Kunst aus den Sammlungen des Fürsten von Liechtenstein, Uwe Wieczorek (Hg.), Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Vaduz 1994, erschienen Bern 1994, S. 86-87 u. 155, Kat. 36
Johann Kräftner, Andrea Stockhammer, Liechtenstein Museum Wien. Le Collezioni, München 2004, S. 217, Abb. S. 176-177 u. 192-193, Kat. VI.8
Johann Kräftner, Andrea Stockhammer, Liechtenstein Museum Vienna. The Collections, Johann Kräftner (Hg.), München–Berlin–London–New York 2004, S. 217, Abb. S. 176-177 u. 192-193, Kat. VI.8
Johann Kräftner, Andrea Stockhammer, Liechtenstein Museum Wien. Die Sammlungen, Johann Kräftner (Hg.), München–Berlin–London–New York 2004, S. 217, Abb. S. 176-177 u. 192-193, Kat. VI.8
Johann Kräftner, Die Schätze der Liechtenstein. Paläste, Gemälde, Skulpturen, Wien 2013, Abb. S. 316
Johann Kräftner, The Treasures of the Liechtensteins. Palaces, Paintings, Sculptures, Vienna 2013
Ausst.-Kat. Menschenbilder – Götterwelten. The Worlds of Gods and Men, Johann Kräftner (Hg.), Dom Quartier Salzburg (Residenzgalerie Salzburg und Nordoratorium), Salzburg 30.7.–16.10.2016, erschienen Wien 2016, S. 148–155, Kat.-Nr. 29
Ausst.-Kat. Menschenbilder – Götterwelten. The Worlds of Gods and Men, Johann Kräftner (Hg.), Dom Quartier Salzburg (Residenzgalerie Salzburg und Nordoratorium), Salzburg 30.7.–16.10.2016, erschienen Wien 2016, S. 148–155, Kat.-Nr. 29
Ausst.-Kat. Von Rubens bis Makart. Die Fürstlichen Sammlungen Liechtenstein, Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Hg.), Albertina, Wien 16.2.2019–10.6.2019, erschienen Köln 2019, S. 232–237, Kat.-Nr. 63
Ausst.-Kat. From Rubens to Makart. LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Klaus Albrecht Schröder (Hg.), Albertina, Wien 16.2.2019–10.6.2019, erschienen Köln 2019, S. 232–237, Kat.-Nr. 63
