The Rape of the Sabines

This sculpture, dated circa 1680, was made from a model done by Giambologna (Flemish/Italian, 1529–1608) in preparation for his "Rape of the Sabine Women" in Florence’s Loggia dei Lanzi in the Piazza della Signoria. That monumental statue was carved from a single block of marble, and has three intertwined figures spiraling upwards: a woman trying to escape the clutches of a man who stands over another man. Giambologna may have been illustrating a legendary aspect of the founding of Rome in 753 B.C. In order to populate the region quickly, it was said that Roman men acquired wives by abducting the women of neighboring Sabine families. In this context, the Latin word “raptio” is better translated as abduction, not rape. The Sabine men were powerless to save their women; they are represented by the man struggling at the bottom of Giambologna’s statue. Giambologna’s workshop continued to produce sculptures based on his work after his death, and this sculpture is likely an example of that practice. This bronze was previously owned by the Duke of Cambacérés.

Giambologna — born Jean Boulogne in Flanders — became one of the most important sculptors in Italy in the second half of the sixteenth century. He was known for his elaborate marble and bronze statuary, ranging from very large marble statues for fountains to small bronze sculptures.

Giambologna settled in Florence in 1553. His first major commission came from Pope Pius IV, and he was court sculptor to the Medici family. In 1563, he was named a member of the newly established Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (Academy of Fine Arts). He died in Florence in 1608 and was buried in a chapel he had designed in the Santissima Annunziata.

Photography by Kevin Miyazaki.