The Rape of the Sabines

The Rape of the Sabines (c. 1635-37) at the Belfius Art Collection belongs to Rubens's late mythological works, depicting the legendary event from early Roman history when the Roman founders — short of women for their new city — lured the neighboring Sabine tribe to a festival and seized their women. The subject was among the most dynamically composed in Rubens's entire repertoire: the simultaneous abduction of multiple women by multiple men, interspersed with desperate resistance from Sabine men and anguished elders, created a compositional challenge of maximum complexity. Rubens's solution — a swirling vortex of action that draws the eye through multiple simultaneous dramas while maintaining compositional coherence — demonstrates his unrivaled ability to manage large-scale action scenes. The Belfius collection holds this late work as a significant example of Rubens's late mythological production, completed during the final productive phase at Het Steen when his personal happiness was at its height even as his physical health was declining.

The monumental composition fills the canvas with struggling figures in dynamic, interlocking poses. Rubens' late brushwork is remarkably fluid, with warm flesh tones and dramatic movement creating a scene of overwhelming physical intensity.

This monumental late Rubens from 1635 has been conserved with attention to the complex multi-figure composition. The canvas has been relined. Conservation has addressed darkening in some of the shadow passages while preserving the dynamic energy of the figural groups.