Rape of the Sabines

The episode, narrated by Plutarch and Titus Livy, depicts the legendary origins of Rome. The artist represented the scene in a way entirely different from the Sacrifice of Polyxena. There, symmetry is abandoned in favor of dynamic and centrifugal movement, and the entire composition is based on diagonal lines. Pietro da Cortona reaches his stylistic maturity in this work. The painting, completed in circa 1630, rightly is considered the first "manifestation" of Baroque painting