Rape of a Sabine Woman

Andrea Andreani

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This monumental print reproduces Giambologna’s famous Florentine sculpture 'Rape of the Sabine Woman'. In his highly original configuration of contorted and intertwined bodies, Giambologna achieved the suggestion of dramatic movement and force—aspects that made the artwork an icon of Renaissance sculpture. To capture its three-dimensional quality, the printmaker Andreani made three different woodcuts after Giambologna’s masterpiece, each depicting the sculpture from a different angle. The technique of chiaroscuro woodcut allowed the printmaker to suggest volume, using three woodblocks; one to render the contour lines, and the others to achieve convincing modulation of the bodies and background.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art