European Figurative Sculptures
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Place of Origin: European
Murano Sommerso Pink Gold Flecks Italian Art Glass Male Female Farmer Sculptures
By Salviati, Cenedese, Alfredo Barbini
Located in Kissimmee, FL
Beautiful vintage Murano hand blown Sommerso pink with gold flecks Italian art glass couple of a man and woman farmer / gardener sculptures. Attributed to designer, and Master glass ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Gold Leaf
"Nude Male with Shovel, " Highly Rare Bronze Sculpture by Oskar Lindenberg
By Oskar Lindenberg
Located in Philadelphia, PA
A rare work by Oskar Lindenberg, a German sculptor who produced few pieces during his productive years, this beautiful nude male bronze captures its s...
Category
1920s Art Deco Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
18th century hand-carved wooden monk
Located in Oostende, BE
Wooden (oak) monk from the second half of the 18th century with glass eyes. Comes from a chapel in Ypres (Belgium).
Fingers and 1 hand are missing, but the corps and face are still...
Category
18th Century Other Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Oak
Hyllested Danish Mid-Century Art Pottery Eskimo Figure
Located in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire
A charming and uncommon Danish mid-century art pottery eskimo figure made by Hyllested Keramik and dating from around 1960. This highly collectable figure is referenced by some as re...
Category
1960s Mid-Century Modern Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Stoneware
Pair 18th C. Louis XVI Patinated & Gilt Bronze Sphinx Motif Andirons/Chenets
By Pierre-Philippe Thomire, Pierre Gouthiere
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Stunning Pair 18th C Louis XVI French Bronze Recumbent Sphinx Chenets
France, circa 1790
A stunning pair of 18th-century Louis XVI French bronze chenets featuring recumbent sphinxes...
Category
Late 18th Century Louis XVI Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
Sandro Erosion Minimalist Contemporary Art Sculpture, 2017
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Sandro Erosion Minimalist sculpture, 2017
Measures: 5 x 3 x 7 cm
10 x 8 x 10 cm support
Made in Berlin in 2017.
Category
2010s Modern European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Rubber
$2,254 Sale Price
25% Off
Life Size Leopard Mount Italian Terracotta Mid 20th Century
Located in Rochester, NY
Life size leopard wall mount. Hand painted terracotta. Italian. Mid 20th century.
# modern Hollywood regency animal cat
Category
Mid-20th Century European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Majolica, Terracotta
17th Century Spanish Wooden Crucifix Figure Sculpture
Located in Marbella, ES
17th century Spanish wooden crucifix figure sculpture.
Category
Mid-17th Century Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Wood
Meissen Porcelain Figure of a Classical Boy Holding Flowers
By Meissen Porcelain
Located in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire
A very fine and scarce antique German porcelain classical figure of a boy holding flowers by world renowned porcelain makers Meissen and dating fro...
Category
1850s Victorian Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Porcelain
English Staffordshire Ewe
Located in Tampa, FL
A 19th century antique English Staffordshire pastoral figurine. Ewe with confetti bocage.
Category
1890s Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Porcelain
$425 / item
Early 19th Century Bronze Sculpture by Lequesne
By (after) Eugène-Louis Lequesne
Located in 263-0031, JP
A pensive figure, evocative to the many depictions of Sappho produced during the Romantic Era, of a seated woman by the French sculptor Eugène Louis Lequesne (1815-1887). She and her...
Category
19th Century Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Marble, Bronze
$1,824 Sale Price
20% Off
Lauritz Adolph Hjorth Danish Mid-Century Seated Nude Figurine
By Lauritz Adolph Hjorth
Located in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire
A stylish mid-century Danish Bornholm terracotta pottery sculpture of a nude maiden sat on a rock her arms raised by Lauritz Adolph Hjorth. The figure is glazed in white with element...
Category
1950s Mid-Century Modern Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Pottery
Neoclassical Greek Revival White Bisque Porcelain "Bacchus" Sculpture
Located in New York, NY
This refined modernist neoclassical sculpture was realized in Germany. The piece depicts a bacchanal featuring Greek goddesses; young cherubic children; and even a bear, executed in ...
Category
1980s Neoclassical Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Porcelain
Rare Art Deco Terra Cotta Sculpture by Keramos in Austria
By Kéramos
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This very fine terra cotta sculpture was a high-end creation of the Keramos ceramic company in Vienna. Although the company produced its share of po...
Category
1930s Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Terracotta
Paco Valle Brutalist Metal Wire Sculpture Man And Woman Paul Evans Style
By Paul Evans
Located in Wayne, NJ
Very Detailed Paco Valle Brutalist Metal Wirework Wire Work Sculpture Of A Man And Woman Lovers . Would go wonderful with both Paul Evans , Cutis C. Jere an...
Category
1960s Brutalist Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Metal
$770 Sale Price
30% Off
Carrara Marble Sculpture Signed A. Batacchi, Italy, Florence, Late 19th Century
Located in Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires
Carrara marble sculpture signed A. Batacchi, Italy, Florence, late 19th century.
Category
Late 19th Century Art Nouveau Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Carrara Marble
Rare Midcentury Ceramic Wall Sculpture Lovers, 1970s
Located in Praha, CZ
- very nice colored.
Category
1970s Mid-Century Modern Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Ceramic
Classic Italian sculpture Antonio Frilli
By Antonio Frilli
Located in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Classic Italian sculpture Antonio Frilli
Origin Italy Circa 1900
Reason: Beatrice
Artist: Antonio Frilli (1860-1920)
Mterialies: Alabaster W...
Category
Early 1900s Neoclassical Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Alabaster, Marble, Bronze
Stone Head Sculpture, United Kingdom, XVIIth Century
Located in MARSEILLE, FR
Sculpted stone head on a modern base, of a mustachioed man
According to the 1983 sales certificate, it would be a 17th century sculpture, even before, of United Kingdom or Ireland o...
Category
17th Century Medieval Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Stone
Unique Eyes Modern Gargoyle by André Teoman Studio
Located in Geneve, CH
Unique Swinger Modern Gargoyle by André Teoman Studio
Dimensions: W 6 x D 6 x H 49 cm
Materials: Tiger Skin Marble, Gold Leaf
André Teoman born in Viana do Castelo, Portugal in 1989...
Category
2010s Modern European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Marble, Gold Leaf
$6,690 / item
Brass Sculpture on Marble Base After Rodin's "The Thinker" - SIGNED
Located in North Miami, FL
Signed V. Martin, this wonderful version of Rodin's renowned sculpture, The Thinker, is made of patinated brass and sits atop a black marble base. Pedestal shown is sold separately ...
Category
1960s Post-Modern Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Marble, Brass
Italian Ceramics Cacciapuoti Art Deco
By Guido Cacciapuoti
Located in Buenos Aires, Argentina
Italian ceramics Cacciapuotti
Art Deco in perfect condition.
Category
1920s Art Deco Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Ceramic
Rare 19 Century Bronze Statue Titled "Mutualite" by Maurice Constant Favre
By Maurice Constant Favre
Located in Vancouver, British Columbia
A very rare and beautifully cast late 19th century bronze by Maurice Constant Favre (1875-1915), titled " Mutualite" depicting two bare chested muscular blacksmiths, an older stockie...
Category
Late 19th Century Romantic Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
"Les Roses" French Gilt Bronze & Marble Figural Centerpiece By Mathurin Moreau
By Mathurin Moreau
Located in New York, NY
A late 19th-century French figural vase by Mathurin Moreau, titled: "LES ROSES", composed of patinated and gilt bronze, marble, and ormolu. The piece features a bronze female figure ...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Marble, Bronze
Large Meissen Porcelain Figurine Group 'Apollo & Daphne', By Juechtzer, Ca. 1860
By Christian Gottfried Juechtzer, Meissen Porcelain
Located in Vienna, AT
Excellent large and rare Meissen figurine group from the 19th century:
Apollo clothed with a cloak embraces Daphne from behind, who is fleeing from him and has already frozen into a ...
Category
1860s Classical Roman Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Porcelain
Lips Jolie Pink Sculpture
By Stefania Boemi
Located in Milan, IT
This entirely made-by-hand sculpture presents a mixture of plaster and cement mortars. It can be hung to the wall through a special recess at the back, which allows the sculpture to ...
Category
2010s European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Cement
$1,317 / item
Wiener Werkstatte St Christopher Pottery Figure Attributed to Michael Powolny
By Michael Powolny
Located in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire
An unusual Austrian art pottery sculptural figure of St Christopher carrying the Christ child across a river attributed to renowned Austrian sculptor, Ceramist, designer and teacher Michael Powolny (Austrian, 1871-1954) and probably dating between 1920 and 1930. The hand-crafted figure shows St Christopher with the Christ child on his shoulder and a wooden staff...
Category
1920s Art Deco Vintage European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Stoneware
Capodimonte Pharaoh Tutankhamon in Porcelain
By Capodimonte
Located in Antwerp, BE
Great sculpture representing Pharaoh TutanKhamon in Capodimonte Italia porcelain decorated and designed by Mario Pegorami is one of the most important artists representing the ancien...
Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Porcelain, Wood
Carl Auböck Handcrafted Wall Sculpture Napoleon #4271, Brass, Austria
By Werkstätte Carl Auböck
Located in Vienna, AT
A beautiful wall sculpture „Napoleon", model #4059, designed by Carl Aubock II back in 1953. A charming object, handcrafted by Werkstätte Auböck in V...
Category
2010s Mid-Century Modern European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Brass
Jacques Adnet Midcentury Brown Leather and Glass French Ashtray, 1950s
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Roma, IT
Superb ashtray with a leather body and glass top. This fantastic item is attributed to Jacques Adnet and was produced in France during the 1950s.
The unique element of this magnif...
Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Leather, Glass
Pop-Art Lighting Sculpture - Vacanze Romane by Marco Lodola
By Mirabili
Located in Pistoia, IT
Light sculpture
Curved acrylic sheet, Lighting with light tubes
"The intervention of an artist, citizen of the world, like Marco Lodola has created a climate of high cultural as well...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Other European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Plexiglass
Kosta Boda Happiness Yellow Red
By Kjell Engman
Located in Wilkes Barre, PA
After one of his visits to the USA in the 80s, Swedish glass artist Kjell Engman got the inspiration to create Happiness based on the women he saw perform in a gospel choir at a chur...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Crystal
$700 / item
Bow Porcelain Figure of Juno with Eagle 'Jupiter', Rococo Ca 1765
By Bow Porcelain
Located in London, GB
This is a very rare and impressive large figure of Juno with an eagle, made by the Bow Porcelain factory in about 1765. This figure formed part of a series of the Four Elements, with...
Category
1760s Rococo Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Porcelain
Figurative Cold-Painted Bronze Lamp by Franz Xaver Bergman
By Franz Xaver Bergman (Bergmann)
Located in London, GB
Figurative cold-painted bronze lamp by Franz Xaver Bergman
Austrian, c. 1910
Measures: Height 46cm, width 19cm, depth 29cm
This fine bronze la...
Category
Early 20th Century European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
Salvador Dali Armchair Invisible Personage Limited Edition of 20
By Salvador Dalí, BD Barcelona Design
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Armchair designed by Salvador Dali manufactured in Spain by BD.
"Invisible Personage" is extracted from the "Singularities" painting, painted by Salvador Dali in 1935. During those ...
Category
2010s Modern European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Sheepskin, Upholstery, Lacquer
$71,111 Sale Price
28% Off
Rare C19th Pottery Nodding Figure
Located in Shipston-On-Stour, GB
A rare C19th English pottery figure of a seated Japanese gentleman in traditional robes, with a nodding head which is lead weighted inside to make his head rock, with a bottle and cu...
Category
1850s Chinoiserie Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Pottery, Paint
Pair of Cold Painted Orientalist Figures
Located in Palm Beach, FL
Pair of antique French Moroccan figures cold painted over spelter with striking detail, colorfully dressed and ready for action with one holding a rifle.
Category
Late 19th Century Moorish Antique European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Spelter
$1,250 / set
Chanel Barrel '2019' by Marc Boffin
Located in North Miami, FL
"Chanel Barrel (2019)" by Marc Boffin, numbered 33 of a limited edition of 100, is a striking testament to the fusion of art and fashion. This unique piece...
Category
2010s European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Metal
$7,463 Sale Price
24% Off
Ceramic Plate Visage Gris 'Grey Face' A.R. 206 by Pablo Picasso & Madoura, 1953
By Madoura, Pablo Picasso
Located in New York, NY
The engraved and brush painted ceramic plate, Visage Gris (Grey Face) is one the most iconic pieces created by Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) at the Madoura workshop in Vallauris, France. It is said "all portraits are self portraits". In this work, we see Picasso's wistfulness, vulnerability and humor set within a beautiful image representing both the sun and the moon, the masculine and the feminine. Picasso mastery of form, image, composition and subtle color is evident in a work that resonates transcendence.
Created in 1953, Pablo Picasso ceramic Visage Gris (Grey Face), 1953 A.R. 206 is a Madoura white earthenware clay, knife engraved under partial brushed glaze with decoration in engobes (green, black, white) from the edition of 500. This work is stamped with the 'Madoura PLEIN FEU' and ‘EMPREINTE ORIGINALE DE PICASSO’ pottery stamps on the reverse. Dimensions: 12 3/8 x 15 1/8 x 1 5/8in (31.4 x 38.3 x 4.1cm). Madoura was an artisan workshop created by Georges and Suzanne Ramie which collaborated with Picasso in the fabrication and hand painting of the works.
Pablo Picasso designed 633 different ceramic editions between 1947 and 1971 at the Madoura workshop, with a number of variants and unique pieces resulting from these initial works. He began by creating simple, utilitarian objects such as plates and bowls, but later produced more complex forms, including pitchers and vases — their handles occasionally shaped to form facial features, or anatomical parts of his animal subjects.
Picasso remains one of the highest-grossing artists at auction today, and the range of his ceramics means it's possible to find both a good investment and a beautiful object. Visage Gris is among the most important.
A Short Biography follows:
Pablo Picasso revolutionized the art world and to many is THE artist of the 20th century. He is famous for his role in pioneering Cubism with Georges Braque and for his melancholy Blue Period pieces. Original signed Picasso lithographs and prints are a sure investment. Madoura Picasso ceramics are highly collectible in their own right.
As one of the most influential Modern artists of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso is renowned as a legendary artistic master to this day. Born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Pablo Picasso was a child prodigy who was recognized as such by his art-teacher father, who ably led him along. The small Museo de Picasso in Barcelona is devoted primarily to his early works, which include strikingly realistic renderings of casts of ancient sculpture.
Picasso was a rebel from the start and, as a teenager, began to frequent the Barcelona cafes where intellectuals gathered. He soon went to Paris, the capital of art, and soaked up the works of Edouard Manet, Gustave Courbet, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whose sketchy style impressed him greatly. Then it was back to Spain, a return to France, and again back to Spain – all in the years 1899 to 1904.
Before he struck upon Cubism, Picasso went through a prodigious number of styles – realism, caricature, the Blue Period, and the Rose Period. These distinguished styles are apparent in the unique original works as well as Picasso ceramics, lithographs, linocuts, and etchings that he created later in his life.
The Blue Period dates from 1901 to 1904 and is characterized by a predominantly blue palette and focuses on outcasts, beggars, and prostitutes. This was when he also produced his first sculptures. The most poignant work of the style, La Vie (1903), currently located in Cleveland’s Museum of Art, was created in memory of his childhood friend, the Spanish poet Carlos Casagemas, who had committed suicide. The painting started as a self-portrait, but Picasso’s features became those of his lost friend. The composition is stilted, the space compressed, the gestures stiff, and the tones predominantly blue.
The Rose Period began around 1904 when Picasso’s palette brightened and is dominated by pinks and beiges, light blues, and roses. His subjects are saltimbanques (circus people), harlequins, and clowns, all of whom seem to be mute and strangely inactive. One of the premier works of this period is Family of Saltimbanques (1905), currently in Washington, D.C. at the National Gallery, which portrays a group of circus workers who appear alienated and incapable of communicating with each other, set in a one-dimensional space.
In 1905, Picasso went briefly to Holland, and on his return to Paris, his works took on a classical aura with large male and female figures seen frontally or in distinct profile, as in early Greek art. One of the best examples of this style is in the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY, La Toilette (1906). Several pieces in this new, classical style were purchased by Gertrude Stein (the art patron and writer) and her brother, Leo Stein.
With his groundbreaking 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon...
Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Earthenware
Austrian Cold Painted Bronze Lamp
By Franz Bergmann
Located in Denton, TX
Viennese cold painted bronze orientalist lamp attributed to Bergman of an Middle Eastern man riding a camel at the Oasis trading post.
Category
Early 20th Century European Figurative Sculptures
Materials
Bronze
French 19th Century Patinated Bronze Group "The Abduction of the Sabine Women"
By Pierre Loison 1
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A very fine and Monumental French 19th century patinated bronze group Titled "The Abduction of the Sabine Women" after a model by Pierre Loison (French, 1816-1886), depicting a young scantily maiden being carried away on the arms of a Roman soldier, raised on circular ebonized wood and brass revolving pedestal stand. Signed at the base: P. Loison, circa: Paris, 1870-1880.
Overall height (Sculpture and Pedestal): 91 inches (231.2 cm).
Sculpture height: 54 3/4 inches (139.1 cm).
Sculpture width: 24 inches (61 cm).
Pedestal height: 36 inches (91.5 cm).
Pedestal width (Widest): 25 1/2 inches (64.8 cm).
Pierre Loison was a French sculptor of the 19th century born in the seaside town of Loir-et-Cher on July 5, 1816 and died in Cannes on February 3, 1886. In 1841, he joined the Pierre-Jean David d'Angers workshop where he became one of his favorite pupils. A year later he attended the School of Fine Arts in Paris. He exhibited for the first time at the Salon des artistes Français where in 1845 he was awarded third-class medal. In 1853 he was awarded First Place medal and at the Universal Exhibition of 1955 he received an honorable mention and another medal award in 1859.
On 12 July 1859 and by decree, he was made "Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur".
Pierre Loison is buried at The Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.
Works by Pierre Loison
"Femme assise": Terre cuite (1843) au musée Gustave-Moreau à Paris
"Jeune fille portant un vase": Statue en marbre blanc, (h. 1,25 m) datée de 1857 et présentée au Salon de 1859 ; la statue fut d’abord placée au Palais-Royal (appartements du prince Napoléon) ; elle est actuellement au musée des Beaux-arts de Dole ; une réplique de taille réduite est au Musée des arts décoratifs de Paris.
"La Halle aux grains de Mer": Chaque façade de ce bâtiment, classé à l’inventaire supplémentaire des monuments historiques, comporte un fronton triangulaire et celui de la façade ouest représentant « L’Agriculture distribuant des couronnes aux enfants de Beauce et de Sologne » a été sculpté gracieusement par P. Loison, natif de la commune.
"La Justice assise": Allégorie de la Justice au fronton du Palais de justice de Blois (1847).
"Buste d’Achille Fould": Au musée du Château de Blois 8;
"Nausicaa": Statue en plâtre présentée au Salon de 1874, au musée des Beaux-arts de Vendôme.
"Statue de J-B. Pigalle sur la façade de l’hôtel de ville de Paris
"Sculptures extérieures du Palais du Louvre": Pierre Loison est l’auteur de neuf statues qui décorent les façades du Louvre "Figure" (1878) au deuxième étage du Pavillon Marsan10; "La Navigation" (1868) sur la balustrade du premier étage du Pavillon des États11; "Pandore" (1861) sur l’aile Est12; « Vénus » (1865) Aile Marsan13; "l’Histoire et la Vérité" (1857)14; "La Poésie et la Philosophie" (1857)15 deux oculi du Pavillon Mollien, coté cour Napoléon ; "Concordet" (1857) sur la balustarde du premier étage de la Rotonde de Beauvais, coté cour Napoléon.
"Statue de Sappho sur le rocher de Leucade : datée de 1859, (h. 1,85 m) sur la façade nord de la cour carrée du Palais du Louvre à Paris ; le modèle en plâtre, offert par Mme Loison, est au musée des Beaux-arts de Blois.
"Vierge à l’enfant": Statue en marbre en l’église Saint-Pierre de Dampierre-en-Yvelines.
"Jeune romain enlevant une Sabine": Groupe présenté au Salon de 1863 qui a été reproduit en bronze par la fonderie d’art Raingo frères.
"Sépulture de la famille Hautoy : Au cimetière du Père-Lachaise, deux bas-reliefs en marbre représentant l’un "La vie de Famille," l’autre 'Le chantier," datés de 1880.
"Demoiselle d’honneur de la Cour de François Ier": Statue en pierre exposée au Salon des artistes vivants en 1870 ; acquise par l’État à ce Salon, elle a été déposée en 1891, devant la mairie d’Aubin.
"La Paix distribuant des palmes aux génies des Beaux-arts": Fronton du Château de Compiègne (1866).
"Daphnis et Naïs": Groupe en marbre (1869) au musée de Picardie à Amiens.
"Jean-Baptiste Pigalle": Statue en pierre (1881) sur la façade principale, au rez-de-chaussée de l’Hôtel de ville de Paris.
"Gisant de Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans: dans la chapelle royale de Dreux en collaboration avec Ary Scheffer.
"La Grace": Statue en marbre (1875) dans le grand foyer de l’opéra Garnier.
The Abduction of the Sabine Women
The Abduction of the Sabine Women is an episode in the legendary history of Rome, traditionally dated to 750 BC, in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families. Recounted by Livy and Plutarch (Parallel Lives II, 15 and 19), it provided a subject for Renaissance and post-Renaissance works of art that combined a suitably inspiring example of the hardihood and courage of ancient Romans with the opportunity to depict multiple figures, including heroically semi-nude figures, in intensely passionate struggle. Comparable themes from Classical Antiquity are the Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs and the theme of Amazonomachy, the battle of Theseus with the Amazons.
The Abduction is supposed to have occurred in the early history of Rome, shortly after its founding by Romulus and his mostly male followers. Seeking wives in order to found families, the Romans negotiated unsuccessfully with the Sabines, who populated the area. 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. According to Livy, many people from Rome's neighbours including folk from the Caeninenses, Crustumini, and Antemnates, and many of the Sabines attended. 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.
Livy says Romulus offered them free choice and promised civic and property rights to women. According to Livy, Romulus spoke to them each in person, declaring "that what was done was owing to the pride of their fathers, who had refused to grant the privilege of marriage to their neighbours; but notwithstanding, they should be joined in lawful wedlock, participate in all their possessions and civil privileges, and, than which nothing can be dearer to the human heart, in their common children." Responsibility of the men for meeting the needs of the children thus conceived was not included.
War with the Sabines and other tribes
Outraged at the occurrence, the King of the Caeninenses entered upon Roman territory with his army. Romulus and the Romans met the Caeninenses in battle, killed their king, and routed their army. Romulus later attacked Caenina and took it upon the first assault. Returning to Rome, he dedicated a temple to Jupiter Feretrius (according to Livy, the first temple dedicated in Rome) and offered the spoils of the enemy king as spolia opima. According to the Fasti Triumphales, Romulus celebrated a triumph over the Caeninenses on 1 March 752 BC.
At the same time, the army of the Antemnates invaded Roman territory. The Romans retaliated, and the Antemnates were defeated in battle and their town captured. According to the Fasti Triumphales, Romulus celebrated a second triumph in 752 BC over the Antemnates.
The Crustumini also started a war, but they too were defeated and their town captured.
Roman colonists subsequently were sent to Antemnae and Crustumerium by Romulus, and many citizens of those towns also migrated to Rome (particularly the families of the captured women).
The Sabines themselves finally declared war, led into battle by their king, Titus Tatius. Tatius almost succeeded in capturing Rome, thanks to the treason of Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, governor of the citadel on the Capitoline Hill. She opened the city gates for the Sabines in return for "what they bore on their arms", thinking she would receive their golden bracelets. Instead, the Sabines crushed her to death with their shields, and her body was thrown from a rock known ever since by her name, the Tarpeian Rock.
The Romans attacked the Sabines, who now held the citadel. The Roman advance was led by Hostus Hostilius, the Sabine defence by Mettus Curtius. Hostus fell in battle, and the Roman line gave way, They retreated to the gate of the Palatium. Romulus rallied his men by promising to build a temple to Jupiter Stator on the site. He then led them back into battle. Mettus Curtius was unhorsed and fled on foot, and the Romans appeared to be winning.
At this point, however, the Sabine women intervened:
[They], from the outrage on whom the war originated, with hair dishevelled and garments rent, the timidity of their sex being overcome by such dreadful scenes, had the courage to throw themselves amid the flying weapons, and making a rush across, to part the incensed armies, and assuage their fury; imploring their fathers on the one side, their husbands on the other, "that as fathers-in-law and sons-in-law they would not contaminate each other with impious blood, nor stain their offspring with parricide, the one their grandchildren, the other their children. If you are dissatisfied with the affinity between you, if with our marriages, turn your resentment against us; we are the cause of war, we of wounds and of bloodshed to our husbands and parents. It were better that we perish than live widowed or fatherless without one or other of you."
The battle came to an end, and the Sabines agreed to unite in one nation with the Romans. Titus Tatius jointly ruled with Romulus until Tatius's death five years later.
The new Sabine residents of Rome settled on the Capitoline Hill, which they had captured in the battle.
Artistic representations:
The Rape of the Sabine Women by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld
The subject was popular during the Renaissance as symbolising the importance of marriage for the continuity of families and cultures. It was also an example of a battle subject in which the artist could demonstrate his skill in depicting female as well as male figures in extreme poses, with the added advantage of a sexual theme. It was depicted regularly on 15th-century Italian cassoni and later in larger paintings. A comparable opportunity from the New Testament was afforded by the theme of the Massacre of the Innocents.
Giambologna
The sculpture by Giambologna (1579–1583) that was reinterpreted as expressing this theme depicts three figures (a man lifting a woman into the air while a second man crouches) and was carved from a single block of marble. This sculpture is considered Giambologna's masterpiece. Originally intended as nothing more than a demonstration of the artist's ability to create a complex sculptural group, its subject matter, the legendary rape of the Sabines, had to be invented after Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, decreed that it be put on public display in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria, Florence. True to mannerist densely packed, intertwined figural compositions and ambitious overinclusive efforts, the statue renders a dynamic panoply of emotions, in poses that offer multiple viewpoints. When contrasted with the serene single-viewpoint pose of the nearby Michelangelo's David, finished nearly 80 years before, this statue is infused with the dynamics that lead towards Baroque, but the tight, uncomfortable, verticality— self-imposed by the author's virtuosic restriction to a composition that could be carved from a single block of marble— lacks the diagonal thrusts that Bernini would achieve forty years later with his Rape of Proserpina and Apollo and Daphne, both at the Galleria Borghese, Rome.
The proposed site for the sculpture, opposite Benvenuto Cellini's statue of Perseus, prompted suggestions that the group should illustrate a theme related to the former work, such as the rape of Andromeda by Phineus. The respective rapes of Proserpina and Helen were also mooted as possible themes. It was eventually decided that the sculpture was to be identified as one of the Sabine virgins.
The work is signed OPVS IOANNIS BOLONII FLANDRI MDLXXXII ("The work of Johannes of Boulogne of Flanders, 1582"). An early preparatory bronze featuring only two figures is in the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples. Giambologna then revised the scheme, this time with a third figure, in two wax models now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The artist's full-scale gesso for the finished sculpture, executed in 1582, is on display at the Accademia Gallery in Florence.
Bronze reductions of the sculpture, produced in Giambologna's own studio and imitated by others, were a staple of connoisseurs' collections into the 19th century.
Nicolas Poussin
Nicolas Poussin produced two major versions of this subject, which enabled him to display to the full his unsurpassed antiquarian knowledge, together with his mastery of complicated relations of figures in dramatic encounter. One, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was executed in Rome, 1634–35. It depicts Romulus at the left giving the Signal for the abduction.
The second version, of 1636–37, now at the Louvre Museum, shows that, though some of the principal figures are similar, he had not exhausted the subject. The architectural setting is more developed.
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens painted a version of the subject about 1635–40. It is at the National Gallery, London.
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David painted the other end of the story, when the women intervene to reconcile the warring parties. The Sabine Women Enforcing Peace by Running Between the Combatants (also known as The Intervention of the Sabine Women ) was completed in 1799. It is in the Louvre Museum.
David had worked on it from 1796, when France was at war with other European nations after a period of civil conflict culminating in the Reign of Terror and the Thermidorian Reaction, during which David himself had been imprisoned as a supporter of Robespierre. After David’s estranged wife visited him in jail, he conceived the IDEA of telling the story, to honor his wife, with the theme being love prevailing over conflict. The painting was also seen as a plea for the people to reunite after the bloodshed of the revolution.
The painting depicts Romulus's wife Hersilia — the daughter of Titus Tatius, leader of the Sabines — rushing between her husband and her father and placing her babies between them. A vigorous Romulus prepares to strike a half-retreating Tatius with his spear, but hesitates. Other soldiers are already sheathing their swords.
The rocky outcrop in the background is the Tarpeian Rock.
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