Medium:Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over black chalk, on brownish paper
Dimensions:sheet: 15 13/16 x 21 7/8 in. (40.1 x 55.6 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1961
Accession Number:61.52
Inscription: Annotated in pen and brown ink at top of verso of old mount in Jonathan Richardson Jr.'s hand [Lugt 2997]: "Sabinæ Mulieres[underlined], quarum ex Injuria Bellum ortum erat crinibus Passis, scissaque veste, victo malis Muliebri pavore, ausae se inter tela volantia inferre, ex/transverso impetu facto, dirimere infestas acies, dirimere iras; hinc Patres, hinc viros orantes. Liv.[underlined]I.13." This is a passage from Livy's history of Rome [I.XIII] identifying the subject.
(Translation: "[Then] the Sabine women, whose wrong had given rise to the war, with loosened hair and torn garments, their woman's [sic] timidity lost in a sense of their misfortune, dared to go amongst the flying missiles, and rushing in from the side, to part the hostile forces and disarm them of their anger, beseeching their father on this side, on that their husbands...")
In graphite by modern hands: "From the elder Richardson's Collection / By Luca Giordano / From Richardson's Collection."
In 17th-century hand, in lower right corner of verso of actual sheet, seen through cutaway in old mount: "Luca Giordano d[ett]º Fa Presto / per la velocita nel dipingere / nel concepire, e nel partorire / in un fiato medesimo".
Jonathan Richardson Jr. (British); William Bates (British); David Rust
Morgan Library & Museum, New York. "Drawings from New York Collections, II. The Seventeenth Century in Italy," February 23, 1967–April 22, 1967.
B. O. Foster Works of Livius, with an English translation. Alfred C. Schlesinger, 1919-1956, pp. 46-48.
Frits Lugt Les marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes. Marques estampillés et écrites de collections particulières et publiques. Marques de marchands, de monteurs, et d'imprimeurs. Cachets de vente d'artistes décédés. Marques de graveurs apposées.... Amsterdam, 1921, nos. 2993, 2994, cat. no. no. 2170.
"Review: Old Master Drawings (Exh. cat., University of Newcastle, by Ralph Holland, 1964)" Master Drawings. vol. 3, no. 2, New York, 1965, fig. no. pl. 39, p. 177., ill.
Jacob Bean, Felice Stampfle Drawings from New York Collections, Vol. II: The Seventeenth Century in Italy. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 1967, p. 84, no. 136, ill.
James Byam Shaw Drawings by Old Masters at Christ Church, Oxford. Oxford, 1976, cat. no. under 300, 302, pp. 102-03.
Lucia Monaci Disegni di Giovan Battista Foggini (1652-1725). Florence, 1977, cat. no. under no. 13, p. 35.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 17th century Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, cat. no. 179, fig. no. 179, pp. 140-141, ill.
Catherine Monbeig Goguel Dessins baroque florentins du Musée du Louvre. LXXIVe Exposition du Cabinet du dessins. Exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Paris, 1982, p. 216, under no. 132.
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