Currently not on view
The Rape of the Sabines,
mid 17th century
Jacques Stella, French, 1596–1657
y1967-102
Although born in Lyons, Stella received his artistic formation during his eighteen years in Italy (1616–34), where he and another French expatriate artist, Nicolas Poussin, became close friends. Like many painters of the time, Stella and Poussin interpreted scenes from ancient Roman history. The Rape of the Sabines was one such subject. Seeking wives in order to establish families, the first Romans invited the neighboring Sabine people to a festival. At a signal from their leader, Romulus, the Romans abducted the young women and wed them. Poussin depicted this foundation myth as well, in two paintings (Musée du Louvre and Metropolitan Museum of Art). The painters’ works were similar enough that after Stella died a number of his canvases, including this one, were wrongly attributed to the more famous artist, Poussin.
Information
Title
The Rape of the Sabines
Dates
mid 17th century
Maker
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
116 × 163.5 cm (45 11/16 × 64 3/8 in.)
frame: 147.3 × 195.6 × 14.9 cm (58 × 77 × 5 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, John Maclean Magie, Class of 1892, and Gertrude Magie Fund
Object Number
y1967-102
Place Made
Europe, France
Inscription
Partially effaced date on rock, lower edge to left of center:
Third number read as "6" or "5"
Culture
Type
Art market, London or United States (ca. 1920s-30s; sold to Hesketh [?]); Thomas Fermor-Hesketh. 8th Bt., Easton Neston, Towcester, U.K.; by descent to his son, Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, 2nd Baron, and Lady Hesketh (until 1967; sold to Spink); Marshall Spink, Ltd., London (1967; sold to Princeton University Art Museum).
- H. Avrey Tipping, "Country homes, gardens old and new: Easton Neston--II: Northamptonshire, the seat of Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, Bt.", Country life 62, no. 1597 (Aug. 27, 1927): p. 296-303., p. 296, fig. 1
- Alfreda J. Murck, "Acquisitions 1967," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 27, no. 1 (1968): p. 35-41., p. 37
- Pierre Rosenberg, French master drawings of the 17th & 18th centuries in North American collections, (London: Secker & Warburg, 1972)., p. 213
- Gail S. Davidson, "Some genre drawings by Jacques Stella: notes on an attribution", Master drawings 13, no. 2 (1975): p. 147-157+190-194., p. 154, note 2
- Jean-Pierre Cuzin, "New York: French seventeenth-century paintings from American collections", Burlington magazine 124, no. 953 (Aug., 1982): p. 526-527+529-530., p. 530 (A. Blunt note)
- Pierre Rosenberg, Katharine Baetjer, Mary Laing and Gretchen Wold, ""France in the Golden Age": a postscript", Metropolitan Museum Journal 17 (1982): p. 23-46., p. 35
-
Pierre Rosenberg and John Pope-Hennessy, La peinture française du XVIIe siècle dans les collections américaines (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1982)
, p. 230 -
Erich Schleier, "La peinture française du XVIIe siecle dans les collection americaines : France in the Golden Age ; Grand Palais, 29.1. - 28.11.1982", Kunstchronik 36, no. 5 (May, 1983): p. 184-197, 227-237.
, p. 230 - Allen Rosenbaum and Francis F. Jones, Selections from The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1986), p. 32 (illus.)
- Jane Turner, The Dictionary of Art, (New York: Grove, 1996)., Vol. 29: p. 624 (entry for "Stella, Jacques")
- Sylvain Laveissiere and Lena Widerkehr, Jacques Stella (1596-1657), (Paris: Somogy; Lyon: Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon; Toulouse: Musée des Augustins, 2006)., p. 183-184, cat. no. 107 (illus.)
