The Rape of the Sabine Women

Poussin painted this in Rome around 1637. He was a Frenchman who had settled in the city and spent his days among its ruins and ancient statues, and the subject comes from Rome's own founding legend. The new city had too few women, so Romulus invited the neighbouring Sabines to a festival and, at an agreed signal, had his men seize the young women in the crowd. Look to the left, at the figure standing high above the crowd in a red cloak. That is Romulus, and the raised cloak is the signal. Everything below him is the instant after it drops. Poussin froze the panic into something almost architectural, each twisting body placed as carefully as the columns behind it. He was drawn to an old idea that the arrangement of a scene could strike a particular emotion, the way musical modes do, and he built the picture to that theory. He made two versions in these years. The earlier one is in New York, where the temple stands at an angle. Here he turned the buildings to face us straight on, so the scene reads like a stage viewed from the best seat in the house.