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A Drawing for Pietro Da Cortona's Rape of the Sabine Women

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A Drawing for Pietro Da Cortona's Rape of the Sabine Women A Drawing for Pietro da Cortona’s Rape of the Sabine Women Martin Olin Director of Research Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Stockholm Volumes 24–25 Foreword Dr. Susanna Pettersson Director General Associate Professor Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, (An Unpublished Drawing on Panel by Salvator (In the Breach of Decorum: Painting between is published with generous support from the Rosa Depicting a Landscape with a Philosopher Altar and Gallery, Fig. 9, p. 163). Friends of the Nationalmuseum. and Astrological Symbols, Fig. 6, p. 22). © Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 2.0 © The Capitoline Museums, Rome. Archivio (In the Breach of Decorum: Painting between Nationalmuseum collaborates with Svenska Fotografico dei Musei Capitolini, Roma, Sovrinten- Altar and Gallery, Fig. 13, p. 167). Dagbladet, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, denza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali. © The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Grand Hôtel Stockholm, The Wineagency and (A Drawing for Pietro da Cortona’s Rape of the Sarasota. Bequest of John Ringling, 1936. Nationalmusei Vänner. Sabine Women, Fig. 2, p. 28). (In the Breach of Decorum: Painting between © Bibliothèque Nationale France, Paris. Altar and Gallery, Fig. 19, p. 173). Cover Illustration (The Entry of Queen Christina into Paris in 1656, © Uppsala auktionskammare, Uppsala Étienne Bouhot (1780–1862), View of the Pavillon by François Chauveau, Fig. 2, p. 32). (Acquisitions 2017: Exposé, Fig 4, p. 178). de Bellechasse on rue Saint-Dominique in Paris, © Finnish National Gallery/ Sinebrychoff Art 1823. Oil on canvas, 55.5 x 47 cm. Purchase: the Museum, Helsinki. Photo: Jaakko Lukumaa Graphic Design Hedda and N. D. Qvist Fund. Nationalmuseum, (Self-Portraits and Artists’ Portraits as Portraits of BIGG NM 7434. Friends – A Selection of Paintings and Drawings, Fig. 2, p. 72). Layout Publisher © IKEA. Agneta Bervokk Susanna Pettersson, Director General. (Spika and Tajt – Alternative Furniture for a Young Generation, Fig. 5, p. 88). Translation and Language Editing Editors © Moderna museet, Stockholm Clare Barnes, Gabriella Berggren, and Martin Ludvig Florén, Magnus Olausson and Martin Olin. (Henry B. Goodwin – A Visual Artist with the Naylor. Camera as His Tool, Fig. 2, p. 90). Editorial Committee © The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Digital Publishing Ludvig Florén, Carina Fryklund, Eva Lena image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Ludvig Florén, Magnus Olausson, and Martin Karlsson, Audrey Lebioda, Ingrid Lindell, Program. Olin (Editors) and Ingrid Lindell (Publications Magnus Olausson, Martin Olin, Cilla Robach (Per Krafft the Younger and Belisarius – One of Manager). and Lidia Westerberg Olofsson. the Foremost Swedish Examples of Neoclassical Painting in the French Style, Figs. 3–4, pp. 113–114). Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum is published Photographers © Albert Bonniers Förlag, Stockholm annually and contains articles on the history and Nationalmuseum Photographic Studio/ (Nils Kreuger’s Drafts for the Covers of Bland theory of art relating to the collections of the Linn Ahlgren, Erik Cornelius, Anna Danielsson, Franska Bönder (1889) by August Strindberg and Nationalmuseum. Cecilia Heisser, Per-Åke Persson and Hans Ord och Bild (1897), Fig. 2, p. 137). Thorwid. © Bukowskis auktioner, Stockholm Nationalmuseum (Nils Kreuger’s Drafts for the Covers of Bland Box 16176 Picture Editors Franska Bönder (1889) by August Strindberg and SE–103 24 Stockholm, Sweden Ludvig Florén and Rikard Nordström. Ord och Bild (1897), Fig. 3, p. 138; Acquisitions www.nationalmuseum.se 2017: Exposé, Fig, 3, p. 178). Photo Credits © Pia Ulin. © Nationalmuseum, the authors and the owners of © Le Gallerie degli Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, Florence. (The Nationalmuseum’s New Restaurant – An the reproduced works. Gabinetto Fotografico delle Gallerie degli Uffizi. Artistic Collaboration, Figs. 1, 2, 4, and 5, pp. 149, (An Unpublished Drawing on Panel by Salvator 150, 152 and 153). ISSN 2001-9238 Rosa Depicting a Landscape with a Philosopher © Wikimedia Commons/ Public Domain and Astrological Symbols, Fig. 3, p. 19). (Per Krafft the Younger and Belisarius – One of © Teylers Museum, Haarlem. the Foremost Swedish Examples of Neoclassical (An Unpublished Drawing on Panel by Salvator Painting in the French Style, Fig 3, p. 112 and ArtRosa Depicting Bulletin a Landscape with a Philosopher of NationalmuseumIn the Breach of Decorum: Painting between Stockholm and Astrological Symbols, Fig. 5, p. 21). Altar and Gallery, Figs. 1–8, 10–12, and 14–18, © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. pp. 155–172). Photo by Pavel Demidov. © Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY 3.0 Volumes 24–25 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volumes 24–25, 2017–2018 ACQUISITIONS/A DRAWING FOR PIETRO DA CORTONA’S RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN A Drawing for Pietro da Cortona’s Rape of the Sabine Women Martin Olin Director of Research Little is known about the exact genesis of Pietro da Cortona’s famous Rape of the Sabine Women in the Capitoline Museums in Rome (Fig. 2).1 It was acqui- red by Benedict XIV for the Pinacoteca Capitolina in 1748, together with other paintings from the Sacchetti collection, where it was first recorded in an inven- tory in 1639. The picture had probably entered the collection earlier, but there is no record of a commission from the Sacchetti, who were Pietro da Cortona’s most important patrons around 1630. However, the first mention of theRape of the Sabine Women was in the 1631 trial of Don Fabritio Valguarnera, a disreputable Sicilian nobleman and diamond thief who may have been its first owner.2 At the end of this article, I will return to this curious episode in the history of Roman 17th- century art. The classical sources for the story of how the first Romans kidnapped Sabine maidens and forced them to become their wives are found in Livy’s Ab urbe condita (I, 9–10 and 13) and in Plutarch’s Vita Romuli (14 and 19). Failing to procure brides through negotiation, the all- male inhabitants of Rome invited their neighbouring peoples to a harvest festival in honour of the god Consus (or the Equestrian Neptune). At a given signal from their king Romulus, the Romans abducted the Sabine women, ignoring their protests (but, according Fig. 1 Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669), attributed here to, Rape of the Sabine Women, Study for a Detail to Plutarch, encouraging the Sabine men of a Larger Composition, c. 1627–29. Black chalk on paper, 269 x 213 mm. Purchase: the Wiros Fund. Nationalmuseum, NMH 45/2017. to escape). 27 Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volumes 24–25, 2017–2018 ACQUISITIONS/A DRAWING FOR PIETRO DA CORTONA’S RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN Fig. 2 Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669), Rape of the Sabine Women, 1630. Oil on canvas, 280 x 426 cm. The Capitoline Museums, Rome, PC 137. The dynamic composition of the painting mistake. Hersilia can be identified on the sitting on an elevated throne, or on shows the progress of the story in episodes left as the woman who turns in anguish horseback, observing from a distance the told in horizontal scenes parallel to the to her weeping child. Technical examina- aggression that follows his orders. Here, picture plane. Romulus, seated on an tion has shown that the composition of the king stands in the midst of the action, elevated platform between two columns, the painting developed gradually, with listening to a report from an officer gives the signal, which is first apprehended many changes in the attitudes and exact who approaches from the right, bowing by those standing closest to him. An officer positions of the figures.3 respectfully and raising his right hand to takes a step forward and raises his right In 2017, the Nationalmuseum acquired his mouth to indicate speech. Romulus arm, indicating to his followers where to a black chalk drawing that appears to be a is identified by his crown, which is of the go. In the foreground are three pairs of composition sketch for Romulus giving the type worn by ancient kings in 17th-century Romans and Sabine women in varying signal to the Romans to abduct the Sabine imagery, and also by the fact that he is attitudes. The artist appears to be women (Fig. 1). The drawing is attributed holding on to the folds of his cloak with his following Plutarch, who mentions that here to Pietro da Cortona, and is closely left hand, for, according to Plutarch, “[t] only one of the women, Hersilia (later to related to the Capitoline painting.4 On this he signal that the time had come for the become Romulus’ spouse), was already sheet, the artist is trying out an alternative onslaught was to be his rising and folding married, and that she was abducted by to the traditional iconography of Romulus his cloak and then throwing it round him Art Bulletin of Nationalmuseum Volumes 24–25, 2017–2018 28 ACQUISITIONS/A DRAWING FOR PIETRO DA CORTONA’S RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN again”.5 (In the painting, the detail of Romulus’ hand holding the cloak is not clearly legible and may be unfinished.) Romulus is moving to the left; his cloak flies in the wind as he turns his head to listen intently to the words of the officer. The head of Romulus in the drawing, with its curly hair and suggested beard, has in fact been used in the painting, but for the kneeling Roman in the centre fore- ground, where the same shadow over the collarbone can be noticed. Pietro da Cortona first tried another position for the king, with legs and body turned towards the right. The initial, tentative outlines of the legs can be seen, but once the artist had decided on the final attitude, with its energetic countermovement, he emphas- ised the outlines of the legs with forceful chalk lines. Behind the two central figures, others are moving in a parallel plane; to the right are two Romans, one with his back turned to the viewer as he carries off a Sabine woman.
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