The Abduction of a Sabine Woman (1584): Art, History and Details

The Abduction of a Sabine Woman (1584) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Andrea Andreani (Italian, about 1558–1610); Giambologna (Flemish, active Italy, 1529–1608).

The work and its context

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

A pinnacle of sculpture in the generation after Michelangelo was Giambologna’s Abduction of the Sabine Women, depicted here in a contemporaneous print by Andrea Andreani. Giambologna created a twisting harmony of three forms that capture the narrative of a Roman male abducting a Sabine woman and vanquishing a Sabine male below. Giambologna’s sculpture was installed in Florence in the public piazza near Michelangelo’s David.

Object facts

• Title: The Abduction of a Sabine Woman
• Date: 1584
• Creator attribution: Andrea Andreani (Italian, about 1558–1610); Giambologna (Flemish, active Italy, 1529–1608)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Print
• Technique: chiaroscuro woodcut
• Collection: PR - Chiaroscuro
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 1925.1221

A detail from the museum

The Abduction of a Sabine Woman is the first attempt in the chiaroscuro technique by Andrea Andreani, as well as the first chiaroscuro ever to depict a work of sculpture.

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland

Further reading listed by the museum

• Goldfarb, Hilliard T. “Chiaroscuro Woodcut Technique and Andrea Andreani.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 9 (November 1981): 307–330.

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.