Study of the Sabine Statue from the Villa Medici (c. 1775–1780): Art, History and Details

Study of the Sabine Statue from the Villa Medici (c. 1775–1780) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This drawing depicts a classical sculpture (see photo) said to represent a Sabine (the Sabines were a village people who resided northeast of ancient Rome). David saw the statue at Rome's Villa Medici, a fact he noted by inscribing the location at the lower left corner of this study. The artist made the sketch early in his career, during his 1775-80 stay in Italy as winner of the coveted Rome Prize scholarship. This and the many other drawings and tracings that David made after ancient sculpture and vases in Italy helped him later become the leader of neoclassical painting.

Object facts

• Title: Study of the Sabine Statue from the Villa Medici
• Date: c. 1775–1780
• Creator attribution: Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825)
• Culture: France
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pen and brown ink and brush and gray wash
• Dimensions: Sheet: 21.4 x 14.8 cm (8 7/16 x 5 13/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2008.343

Collection credit

Bequest of Muriel Butkin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.