The Rape of a Sabine Woman, Frontal View
c. 1598
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Sheet, trimmed within platemark: 42 × 28 cm (16 9/16 × 11 1/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
123078
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Jan Harmensz Müller produced a series of masterful engravings from three different vantage points after wax models for Adriaen de Vries’s sculpture Rape of a Sabine. Although De Vries cast his sculpture around 1620, long after Müller produced his prints, he replicated the style of antique bronzes. Müller’s series highlights both his engraving skill and his ability to mimic sculpture in the round. The ancient story, in which Roman soldiers requisitioned brides en masse, is particularly apt for th...
Art Historical Context
In the late 16th century, engraver Jan Harmensz. Muller the dramatic intensity of classical mythology in *The Rape of a Sabine, Frontal View*c. 1598). This engraving depicts a tumultuous scene from Roman legend, where early Romans abducted women from the neighboring Sabines to secure wives and ensure the city's survival. Muller's composition thrusts the viewer into the chaos, with a central female figure in a dynamic, frontal pose amid swirling figures, embodying the raw emotion and violence of the myth—a popular subject in Renaissance art symbolizing both brutality and foundational heroism. As a master of the burin, Muller excelled in engraving, incising intricate lines into a copper plate to create rich tonal contrasts and fluid forms on paper. Trained in Haarlem under Hendrick Goltzius, his Mannerist style features elongated limbs, expressive gestures, and a sense of movement that draws from Italian influences like Bartholomeus Spranger. Printed on a modest 42 × 28 cm sheet, this work exemplifies the era's print revolution, making high-art scenes accessible beyond paintings. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings Department, Muller's engraving highlights the technical virtuosity of Northern European printmaking during a time of cultural exchange and religious upheaval in the Dutch Republic. It invites visitors to appreciate how prints preserved and disseminated dramatic narratives, bridging antiquity with early modern sensibilities.
About the Artist
Jan Harmensz. Muller · 1571–1628
Comment on works: Printer and Draughtsman