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Exemplaria Medieval, Early Modern, Theory

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Reading the Visual Arts: Textuality and Historicity in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

Fidel Fajardo-Acosta

To cite this article: Fidel Fajardo-Acosta (2000) Reading the Visual Arts: Textuality and Historicity in Poussin's Rape�of�the�Sabine�Women , Exemplaria, 12:2, 487-522, DOI: 10.1179/ exm.2000.12.2.487

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FIDEL FAJARDo-ACOSTA

nec procul hinc Romam et raptas sine more Sabinas. Aeneid 8.635

I

The act of reading proposed here aspires to be both historical and post-historical, that is, to position its object of study within a histori- cal context while at the same time recognizing the unavoidable

I am very grateful to R. Allen and Judy Shoaf and Exemplaria's referees as well as to Su- sanne L. Wofford, Laurie Edson, and E.John Walford for their invaluable help and advice in the revision of this paper. Iam also very thankful and indebted to the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, the Museo del Prado, Barbara Goldstein (National Gallery of Art), Cather- ine Belanger (Musee du Louvre), Gilles Chazal (Petit Palais, Musee des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris), Maria Elisa Tittoni (Pinacoteca Capitolina), Claudio Strinati (Sopriten- denza per i Beni Artistici e Storici, Rome), and AmeIie Lefebure (Musee Conde) for their help and kindness in granting the necessary permissions for the publication of the illus- trations in this study. I am also in debt to Professor Vernon Minor of the University of Col- orado, Boulder, for his inspiring lectures, which first introduced me to the work of Poussin.

Exemplaria 12.2 2000 © Published by Pegasus Press, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, North Carolina.

488 Text, History inPoussin s Rape of the Sabine Women

textuality of all contextual grounds. In this way, the art work under examination is seen as a textualized object marked by a semantic in- stability which is analogous (or rather, homologous) to that of other signifying streams-literary texts, other art works, ancient and con- temporary history, and even the concerns of readers/viewers in the future. In such a situation, the art work can only be identified and located as a necessarily overdetermined and contradictory in tersec- tion of multiple discourses and signifying practices. Following Oskar Batschmann's and David Carrier's method of "unframing" and al- lowing a work of art to enter into dialectical interaction with other times and artifacts, 1 this study seeks therefore to define a pain ting and its signifying potentials in terms of its relations to a variety of (con) texts-including our own position as twentieth-eentury read- ers and art critics.

The works of Nicolas Poussin have often been noted for their privileged relation to the written word, as well as for their strong ide- ological and didactic impulses.2 Poussin himself explicitly empha- sized the links between visual image and verbal narrative and advised viewers to "read" his pictorial representations: "lisez l'his- toire et Ie tableau, afin de connaitre si chaque chose est appropriee au sujet" ("read the story and the painting in order to determine whether each thing properly corresponds to the subject"). 3 Drawing their inspiration and subject matter from ancient narratives-myths, legends, history, and literature-Poussin' s works in effect feature a unique sort of painterly literariness, a visual textuality partly dictated by the nature of their sources.

1 David Carrier, Poussin's Paintings: A Study in Art-Historical Methodology (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993), 26ff; Oskar Batschmann, Nicolas Poussin: Di- alectics 0/ Painting (London: Reaktion Books, 1990).

2 Carrier, Poussin's Paintings, 9-10; Walter Friedlaender, Nicolas Poussin: A New Approach (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1966), 22ff; Frederick Hartt, Art: A History o/Painting, Sculp- ture, Architecture (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1989), 712-13; H. W.Janson, History 0/ Art (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1986), 539; Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlof, Ideal Landscape: Annibale Carracci, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain (New Haven: Yale Univer- sity Press, 1990), 133, 141; Sheila McTighe, "Nicolas Poussin's Representations of Storms and Libertinagein the Mid-Seventeenth Century," Word & Image 5 (1989): 333-361, at 360; William McCausland Stewart, Aspects o/the French Classical Ideal (Bristol: University of Bris- tol, 1967), 8.

3 Letter to Paul Freart de Chantelou, April 28, 1639; Nicolas Poussin, Lettres et propos sur l'art, ed. Anthony Blunt (Paris: Hermann, 1964), 36; my translation.

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 489

An intersection of the visual and the verbal, the art of Poussin fea- tures much of the semantic complexity which is so characteristic of literary works. Critics of Poussin have long been aware of a problem in his works, variously interpreted as a contradiction, a shadow, a doubt, a sadness, a lack, an empty center.4 Carrier in particular- commenting on a self-portrait of Po us sin now at the Louvre5-notes such effects in the casting of shadows over written text, Poussin's own name in this case. Carrier further notes the image's mise en abyme, a device which "invites 'visitors to enter the picture' by insert- ing into one work another that refers to the making of art."6 Taken together with Poussin's interest in the texts of history and literature and his conception of his own work as "readable," such self-con- sciousness and literal imaging of textual material speak of an art aware of its simultaneous reproduction of and embeddedness in sig- nifying processes implicating and problematizing subject, object, medium, and the very history from which they arise.

Neo-historicist investigations of the role of cultural artifacts in his- torical processes involving political conflict and negotiation may in fact be able to shed some light on the work and worldly situation of Poussin. In particular, Laurie Nussdorfer's analysis of the political climate of Barberini Rome may be of special relevance in the study of Poussin. An assessment of the relations between Roman civic in- stitutions and Urban VIII, Nussdorfer's work questions the supposed absolutist character of papal power in the Rome of the years 1623-1644. Like Clifford Geertz, Nussdorfer challenges the overem- phasis on command in modern political analysis and observes that "the history of power and politics is more complicated than the old authoritarian model of Baroque monarchy assumed."7 Interested in

4 Batschmann,Nicolas Poussin: Dialectics;John Berger,The Moment of Cubism and OtherEs- says (NewYork:Pantheon,1969);Carrier,Poussin's Paintings; A.Clutton-Brock,Essays on Art (NewYork:CharlesScribner's,1920);and ErwinPanofsky,Meaning in the Visual Arts (GardenCity,NewYork:Doubleday,1955).

5 Carrier,Poussin's Paintings, 7ff; the self-portraitof 1649-1650is no. 2 in Anthony Blunt,The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: A Critical Catalogue (London:Phaidon,1966).

6 Carrier,Poussin's Paintings, 20-21;seealsoLucienDallenbach,The Mirror in the Text, trans.JeremyWhiteleyand EmmaHughes(Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress,1989), 11.

7 LauricNussdorfer,Civic Po/ilin in the Rome of Urban VIII (Princeton:PrincetonUni- versityPress,1992),4. Cf.Clifford(~eertz,Negara: The Theatre State in Ninftfl'nth-Century Bali (Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1980).

490 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

"renewing the voices of once silent historical subjects," her analysis yields a picture of hierarchical and unequal powers but also of ne- gotiation and compromise, a situation evidencing the "vivid political effects of social networks of kinship and patronage. "8

Poussin's complex position in, and attempts to enter into, certain circles of patronage in Barberini Rome may in effect be related to the peculiar variety and contradictoriness of the ''voices'' and discourses represented in his work. Though a Frenchman by birth, Poussin lived and worked in Rome for a substantial part of his life. During the first part of his career, his so called First Roman Period (1624-1640), he moved within artistic and patronage circles connected to Urban VIII.9 In 1624 the poet Giambattista Marino introduced Poussin to the papal circles of patronage. His initial acquaintance with Marcello Sacchetti, friend and banker to the Barberinis, brought Poussin to the attention of Cardinal Francesco Barberini-a nephew to the Pope whose court was to become "the centre of artistic and intellectual life in the city." Another figure whom Poussin came in contact with through the Bar- berinis was Cassiano dal Pozzo, "the most cultivated and learned of all Italian art patrons. "10

Although in 1625 Francesco acquired Poussin's The Capture of Jerusalem lJy the Emperor Titus, his patronage was not lasting. His tastes appear to have leaned toward the more clearly Baroque style of painters like Pietro da Cortona and away from the classicism of Poussin. Almost in proportion to Francesco's indifference, Cassiano dal Pozzo developed a growing fondness for Poussin-a preference deeply rooted on the affinities between Poussin' s style and Cas- siano's classical humanism. As Haskell notes "[Francesco's] own taste was diverging more and more from the severity of his archae- ologist friend Cassiano dal Pozzo. He himself preferred the more lush and showy."11 Though Francesco later bought two more

8 Nussdorfer, Civic Politics, 4-5. 9 The work of Poussin during this initial period eventually attracted the attention of the

French court and led Cardinal de Richelieu to exert pressure, during 1638 and 1639, to bring Poussin back to France. Poussin was finally persuaded to leave Rome in 1640 for a two-year stay at the court of Louis XIII. Unhappy with the pressures and character of his work as peintre du roi, Poussin returned to Rome in 1642 and remained there until his death in 1665.

10 Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations Between Italian Art and So- ciety in the Age of the Baroque (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980),44.

11 Ibid., 46.

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 491

Poussins, Samson and Death of Germanicus, the austerity of the figures "discouraged the young Cardinal. On only one further occasion did he approach Poussin [for a second version of Capture of jerusalem by the Emperor Titus]. "12

Viewed in the context of the politics and systems of patronage of Barberini Rome, the works of Poussin's First Roman Period may be seen to constitute distinctly overdetermined and divided visual dis- courses where art serves specific historical powers but transmits at times contradictory messages. In particular, Poussin's competition with figures like Cortona and his repeated attempts to gain the favor of Francesco appear to have created the conditions for a nuanced art where overt manifestations of flattery and conformity are often mixed with more subtle gestures of criticism and defiance. Poussin's friendship with Cassiano dal Pozzo, on the other hand, hints at the alternative ideological and political channels-secular, civic, hu- manist-through which Poussin could assert aesthetic independ- ence from the fashions encouraged by the Barberinis. Aside from matters of personal inclination and temperament, Francesco's un- responsiveness to the art of Poussin may itself have encouraged Poussin's gradual abandonment of Baroque aesthetics and his em- bracing of a classicism expressive of ideologies aligned with compet- ing political powers.

Perhaps one of Poussin's most problematic and compelling works from this period is the second of his two versions of Rape of the Sabine Women (ca. 1637, fig. 1) .13 In this work, Poussin attempted to repre- sent the legendary abduction of the women of the Sabine tribe by the Romans of Romulus's day-a story known to him through the narratives of Livy,Plutarch, and Virgil.14 According to these sources, the Romans invited the Sabines to the Consualia games or rites in

12 Ibid., 45. 13 The painting is registered as no. 180 in Anthony Blunt's Critical Catalogue and is now

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The matter of the relative dating of the two versions of the scene is by no means uncontroversial. I adopt here the position of Blunt, who proposes ca. 1635 for the work at the Louvre (fig. 2) and ca. 1637 for the one at the Met (fig. 1). While the argument offered in this paper assumes and to a large ex- tent depends on the validity of this dating, it can also be seen as an attempt to lend. ~ur- ther support to Blunt's opinion. It should be pointed out however that ~~ny cr~tICs, including Poussin's biographer Jacques Thuillier, disagree with it; see Thul1hcr, Nzcolas POUSSili (Paris: Flammarion, 1994), 253, 255.

14 Livy, 1.9; Plutarch, LiJt' of Romulus; Aeneid 8.

492 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

Figure 1. Nicolas Poussin, Rape of the Sabine Women (ca. 1637), The Metropoli- tan Museum of Art, Hams Brisbane Dick Fund, 1946 (46.160), New York.

honor of Equestrian Neptune and then assaulted their guests- forcibly taking the women and driving the men away.Livyclaims that only virgins were taken. Plutarch grants that perhaps one married woman, Hersilia (the future wife of Romulus), may also have been captured, though only by mistake. These sources, in accordance with Roman perceptions, brush aside the moral issues raised by the assault and emphasize instead its supposed bloodlessness, the even- tual acquiescence of the women,15 as well as the later establishment of peace treaties between Romans and Sabines. Mter the abduction, among other signs of good will, Romulus is said to have allowed a group of thirty Sabine families, the parents of the abducted women, to retain their lands.

15 The contentment of the Sabine women is expressed in Poussin's scene by means of the image of a couple positioned in the center mid-ground and walking away from the struggle (Carrier, Poussin's Paintings, 126).

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 493

In his work, Poussin placed Romulus standing high on a temple's portico, shown at the moment of giving the signal for the attack (throwing back and then wrapping his mantle around his body). Flanked by columns, Romulus calmly oversees the seizing of the women. Under him, strongly contrasting with his cool serenity, a scene of struggle and confusion unfolds. Young women are violently seized by Roman soldiers while the Sabines flee toward the right. On the lower right and center foreground, a Sabine family is torn apart by a muscular Roman armed with a knife. Two young children tum- ble to the ground. The mother (presumably Hersilia) reaches to- ward them while simultaneously struggling to stay next to her husband who, unarmed, awaits the blow of the Roman's knife. An old woman (presumably a nurse or grandmother to the children) breaks down in despair. The scene is placed within a highly com- posed and majestic architectural setting-a large courtyard sur- rounded by temples, the Capitoline hill visible in the background.

Exhibiting a marked contradiction between the violence of its content and the orderly rationality of its form and style, Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women has generated a number of reactions and in- terpretations which, often only partially textualized and historicized, recognize but ultimately fail to account for the complexity of the painting's messages. Shortly after the Metropolitan Museum ac- quired the painting in 1946,Jane Costello commented on its "beauty and craftsmanship" and the "grandeur of the landscape." At the same time, evidently disturbed by its subject matter, she noted that "we are no longer able to contemplate it with the understanding of the seventeenth century. "16 Costello's morally-minded historicizing assured readers of the museum's bulletin that "to a man or woman of Poussin's time his painting might have suggested connotations of marriage." Indeed, Costello observed, illustrations of this and other rapes were common on the cassoni or wedding chests of Italian brides and were widely used, along with other themes from Roman history and mythology, in the decoration of Italian palaces.17

16 Jane Costello, 'The Rape of the Sabine Women by Nicholas Poussin," Bulletin oftke Metropolitan Museum of,\rt 5 (1947): 197-204, at 197. .

17 Ibid. Susanne L. Wofford has offered an antithetical reading of such scenes and theIr underlying narratives which calls attention to the disturbing and not easilv naturalized ~s- peets of the rape/marria~e link; see "The Social Aesthetics of Ra.pe: Clos~ral Vio~ence In Boccaccio and Hotti<'clli," in Crffltivf Imitation: New l~'\says on Renazssance Lltemture In Hon01'

494 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

In a similar vein, other crItIcs of Poussin have argued that, in- formed by the perspectives of his culture and his textual sources, Poussin attempted to represent the rape as a noble and admirable action. Expressed in terms of a "cold and explicit rhetoric, "18 the scene is said "to exemplify the much admired patriotism and reso- lution in early Rome that permitted any act, even a ruthless or bar- barous one, which would assure the future of the nation."19 Evidencing the political content or political logic often underlying aesthetic judgments, Hartt similarly asserts that "the subject is lofty, for the abduction of the Sabine women by the bachelor Romans as- sured the perpetuation of the Roman race. "20These critical judg- ments and the readings which support them, while essentially correct in their recognition of important aspects of the represented ideologies, need to be qualified, however, in at least two important respects: 1) by means of a more thorough grounding of the work and its possible meanings in their historical moment, and 2) by means of a recognition of the deep division of impulses marking the work as a textual object and yielding alternative semantic and inter- pretive possibilities.

II

Evidence of the semantic complexity and historical grounding of Poussin's work may be gleaned from a consideration of his revision, in the Met rendering, of an earlier version of the Rape now at the Louvre. Although sharing common historical determinants and

of Thomas M. Greene,ed. David Quint et al. (Binghamton: MRTS, 1992),189-238.For Wof- ford, the mythos relating violence to the emergence of the institutions of civilization is a historical construct of classical origin which was appropriated in Renaissance politics and aesthetics. Along similar lines, Stephanie jed identifies, in the intellectual activity of Re- naissance humanism, an appropriation of Roman legends linking sexual violence and po- litical aims, which is seen to serve emergent bourgeois interests; see jed, Chaste Thinking: The Rape of Lucretia and the Birth of Humanism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989).For Patricia K.joplin, such tales of supposedly virtuous rape belong to a category of politically motivated "persecution narratives in which the victim is blamed for the vio- lence used against her and then used as a mouthpiece for the convictions of the persecu- tor just before she is destroyed"; see joplin, "Ritual Work on Human Flesh: Livy's Lucretia and the Rape of the Body Politic," Helios 17(1990):51-70,at 55.

18janson, History of Art, 539. 19 Friedlander, Nicolas Poussin, 142. 20 Hartt, Art: A History, 713.

FIDEL F1\JARDO-ACOSTA 495

Figure 2. Nicolas Poussin, Rape of the Sabine Women (ca. 1635), Musee du Louvre, Paris (Photo:RMN-R Bernard).

ideological underpinnings, Poussin' s two versions of the scene differ in important stylistic respects. The earlier version (ca. 1635, fig. 2) echoes and attempts to rival the work of Pietro da Cortona, who himself produced a version of the Sabine story in 1630 (fig. 3) and who at that time was working on the ceiling of the Grand Salon at the Barberini palace. The turbulence and emotional drama of Poussin's first work owe much to the style of Cortona and the Baroque style favored by Francesco Barberini. The second version, on the other hand, is considered to be one of the masterpieces of classicism-a work retaining much of the intensity of its original, but rendered in an oddly restrained and almost emotionally detached fashion.

Poussin's imitation of Cor ton a in the first version of the scene may very well have constituted his attempt to conform to the tastes of Francesco and to demonstrate his skills in the Baroque mode which

496 Text, History in Poussin '5 Rape of the Sabine Women

Figure 3. Pietro da Cortona, Rape of the Sabines (1630), Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome.

was paying off so handsomely for Cortona. In effect, the sequence of events which led from Cortona's painting of the rape of the Sabines in 1630 to his employment by the Barberinis in the decoration of their palace (1632-1639) might have suggested to Poussin a tempt- ing model to follow. The prestige and profit of Cortona's appoint- ment to the latter endeavor cannot be overstated. A building acquired by Francesco in 1625, the palace's redesign and decoration became a central concern of the Barberini nephews of the Pope- Francesco, Taddeo, and Antonio--who employed in the task several of the most renowned artists of the time, including Carlo Maderno, Bernini, Andrea Camassei, and Andrea Sacchi. While Antonio was very fond of the work of Sacchi, and Taddeo favored Camassei, the task of designing and decorating the palace's main room was given-under pressure from Francesco and the Pope's Jesuit advis- ers-to Cortona and Francesco Bracciolini, the Pope's favorite poet.

An act of flattery of unprecedented proportions, Cortona and Bracciolini's design of the ceiling testifies to the extent of the sub- servience of Italian artists of the time to the interests of their pa- trons. As Haskell points out, the design of the room was "the most

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 497

spectacular that had ever been seen in a work of the kind"; "the ceil- ing was clearly designed to be the greatest secular record of Bar- berini ambitions. "21 The scene depicted on the ceiling shows the Barberinis as the central motif, represented by symbolic bees encir- cled by laurel-an image which

emblematically ... represents HIC DOMUS (This Is Home), the principal Barberini family impresa ... [alluding to] the aus- picious swarm that heralded Aeneas's arrival in Latium and the establishment of a new ruling dynasty (Aeneid 7:59-69,122).22

As Haskell notes, all other elements of the painting are made to re- volve around this group:

In the centre of the ceiling Divine Providence, the sovereign of the Present and the Future, of Time and the Fates, obeyed by all the Virtues, commands Immortality to crown them with a halo of stars as they form an escutcheon borne aloft by Faith, Hope, and Charity. Above, Religion, with her keys, and Rome, holding the papal tiara, add their tribute to the reigning family.23

Bymeans of complex allegorical representations-Antonio as Abun- dance, Taddeo as Hercules fighting the Vices, and so on-the paint- ing dramatizes the power and virtue of the papal family and depicts it as engaged in a "strenuous war against the forces of evil."24 The in- tended effect and political implications of the scene could not pos- sibly be lost on anyone entering the Grand Salon: "a swirling crowd of figures, whose grandeur and richness of colour awe, almost crush, the visitor with the feeling of his insignificance. "25

The precedents of Cortona's flattery and Francesco's support of his work may be capable of accounting for some of the motivation behind Poussin' s two versions of the rape of the Sabines. Both at- tempts to compete with Cortona (by redeploying his 1630 subject), the two paintings are suggestive of repeated efforts on the part of Poussin to gain for himself the kind of favor which Cortona found

21 Haskell, Patrons and Painters, 51. 22 John Beldoll Scott, Images of Nepotism: The Painted Ceilings of Palazzo Barberini (Prince-

ton: Princeton University Press, 1991),185. 23 Haskell, Patrons and Painters, 52. 24 Ibid., 0:). 25 Ibid., 52.

498 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

within the Barberini circle. An act of stylistic conformity closely echoing the work of Cortona, Poussin' s first version of the subject was crafted at a time when Poussin appears to have harbored high hopes of attracting Francesco's attention. Made for Cardinal Luigi Omodei, the painting's style and subject matter closely conform to the prevailing fashions, the general ideological positions of Roman Catholic cardinals, and, more specifically, the aesthetic preferences and the political interests and activities of Francesco Barberini.

Francesco's appointment as cardinal in 1623 came at a time of transition in the complex political and spiritual developments of the Thirty Years War. Francesco indeed was chosen by the Pope to play a central role in his missions and in the defense of the Church's in- terests.26 Thus, already in 1625 Francesco was appointed by the Pope as his ambassador in a delicate diplomatic mission to France.27 In particular, Francesco's task was to meet with Richelieu and Louis XIII in order to arrange an end to the rivalry between France and Spain and to prevent France from making any concessions to the Huguenots.28 These efforts were in turn part of Urban VIII's general goal to "preserve neutrality between Catholic nations ... in the in- terests of a concerted front against Protestantism. "29On the domes- tic front, Urban's anti-Protestant policies took the form of zealous censorship and vigilance over intellectual and artistic activity and book publishing.30 In Rome, these duties-including the enforce- ment of the Index of banned books and authors-were entrusted to the cardinal-controlled Roman Inquisition-an Italian counterpart of the Spanish Inquisition founded in 1542 and charged with the task of eradicating Protestantism in Italy.31 In his character as cardi- nal and papal legate in France, Francesco was thus, very early in his

26 LudwigPastor,The History of the Popes, trans.D. E. Graf,vol.28 (St.Louis:Herder, 1952),38ff.

27 Ibid.,76ff. 28 Haskell,Patrons and Painters, 44. 29 EamonDuffy,Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (NewHaven:YaleUniversity

Press,1997),184. 30 PaolaSantucci,Poussin: Tradizione ermetica e classicismo gesuita, Arted'OccidenteSeries

(Salerno:10/17,1985),66-67. 31 TheRomanInquisitionwasfoundedin 1542byPopePaulIII and placedunder the

controlof a councilof sixcardinalsknownas the Congregationof the Inquisition.Ex- cessesand abusesof the Inquisition'spowerwerenotoriousduring the papaciesof Paul IV(1555-1559)andPiusV (1566-1572).

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 499

career, placed at the center of the Pope's and the Church's internal and external struggles against Protestantism.

Although the idea remains controversial, certain of Poussin's works appear indeed to allude to the Counter-Reformation's mis- sions to contain the Protestant challenge and the perceived deterio- ration of the Church's position vis-a-visemerging national powers.32 The beginning of Poussin's involvement with the Counter-Reforma- tion, and the jesuits in particular, dates back to 1622. That year, on the occasion of the canonization of Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, Poussin was commissioned to create appropriate images, now lost, celebrating the event.33 During his later sojourn in France, Poussin became again involved with the Jesuits and produced several works expressing Counter-Reformation ideals, among them a lost version of The Miracles of Saint Ignatius and The Miracle of St. Francis Xavier (1641).34 As Paola Santucci notes, however, the relations be- tween Poussin and the jesuits went deeper than the attested facts of work commissioned and extended into the ideological plane. She sees, in particular, a strong degree of affinity between Poussin's med- itations on the subject of divine grace and human action and Ig- natius's doctrines.35

Read in the context of the interests and activities of the post-Tri- dentine Roman Catholic Church, Poussin's two versions of Rape of the Sabine Women may in effect be construed as allusions-through

32 Emile Male, L 'art religieux de lafin du XVIe siecie,du XVIIe siecle,et du XVIIIe siecle:Etude sur l'iconographie apes le Concile de Trente (Paris: Armand Colin, 1972); Santucci, Poussin: Tradizione ermetica; cf. Alain Merot, Nicolas Poussin (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990), 14-15.

33 Santucci, Poussin: Tradizione ermetica, 64. 34 In reference to Poussin) s The Miracle of St. Francis Xavier (1641), Emile Male remarks,

"Ie miracle de saint Fran<:ois-Xavier ressuscitant une morte fut peint par Poussin pour Ie noviciat des Jesuites de Paris .... Les Peres voulaient faire naitre des vocations, ils voulaient aussi eveiller dans les esprits cette pensee qu'exprime I'Imago primi saeculi, 'que la Societe deJesus, quand meme e1len'aurait produit que saint Fran<:ois-Xavier,serait nee pour Ie salut des nations'''; Male, L'art religieux, 438.

35 "[E] stata avanzata anche l'ipotesi di un rapporto stretto con i Gesuiti sulla base, oltre che delle provate re1azioni di lavoro, anche di un 'affinita ideologica tra la 'doppia medi- tazione sulla grazia divina e sulla condotta volontaria dell'uomo'-che caratterizza la pro- duzione religiosa di Poussin-e quella formula, riflettente il pensiero di S. Ignazio, che affermava: 'Poni la tua fede in Dio, rna agisci come se it risultato delle tue imprese non dipendesse che da te e per nulla da Dio. Cia nonostante mentre con ogni cura.ti dedichi aIle tue impresse, comportati come se la tua azione dovesse essere nulla e se DIOdovesse fare tutto'" (Santucci, Pous.\in: Tmdnione ermetica, 63).

500 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

the visual metaphor of a historically and ideologically glorified at- tack-to the anti-Protestant spirit and practices of the Pope, his Car- dinals, the Jesuits, and the Roman Inquisition. In that general sense, the Romans and their chief Romulus may be understood as symbols of the Roman Catholic Church and its leader(s), engaged in a pitched struggle for survival and continuity (a literal "reproduction" issue in the Roman context). The soberly-drawn figures of the Sabines, on the other hand, lend themselves rather well (especially in the second version) as representations of Protestants and Protes- tantism-appropriate visual embodiments of the ethos of austerity and simplicity associated with the Reformation.

Suggestive evidence of the links of Poussin' s images to represen- tations of inquisitorial practices and the Church's history of sup- pression of heresy may be gleaned from a consideration of a more obvious depiction of religious persecution such as Pedro Berruguete's St. Dominic Presiding over an A uto-daje (ca. 1490, fig. 4). Berruguete's image is rather typical of the symbolic character of such representations and constitutes "a single icon that is intended to convey the legitimacy, grandeur, and power of the Spanish Inqui- sition. "36 The image shows, as Edward Peters notes, "the majesty of the tribunal, its saintly director, the cooperation of the secular arm, the punishment of heretics, and, at the far left, the approving witnesses."37

An examination of the Berruguete scene reveals indeed striking parallels, in form and content, with the work of Poussin (in particu- lar with the Met Rape). Most notable perhaps is the position and characterization of the saint and his ecclesiastical court on an ele- vated stage, engaged in the serene contemplation of the execution of heretics-including the burning of two male victims (depicted naked and strapped to wooden beams). The figure and hand ges- tures of Saint Dominic are reminiscent of Poussin's Romulus, while the latter's staff is echoed in the banner held by the official next to the saint. The quiet submissiveness, vulner~bility, and white-skinned nakedness of the burning victims also mirror the white skin of the rape victims, their helplessness, and their relative resignation to their fate. Berruguete's two mounted officers accompanied by foot

36 Edward Peters, Inquisition (New York: The Free Press/Macmillan, 1988), 223. 37 Ibid.

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 501

Figure 4. Pedro Berruguete, St. Dominic Presiding over an Auto-da-fe (ca. 1490), Museo del Prado, Madrid.

502 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

soldiers with lances positioned in the cross pattern add to the sym- bolism of his scene and find parallels in the Poussins-both versions of the scene featuring mounted and foot soldiers in the midst of an insistent pattern of intersecting diagonals.38 The officials standing on the stage with Romulus and the lictor(s) on the left appear in turn to correspond rather closely to the figures and functions of the ecclesiastical dignitaries accompanying the saint and those witness- ing the event. Rather than a case of direct or indirect influence, what the similarities between the scenes suggest is the continued use and voicing, in the work of Poussin, of a historical visual discourse and iconographic vocabulary associated with religious persecution and its justification.

Consistent with the idea of Poussin's continued attempts to ap- peal to the interests of powerful ecclesiastical patrons, the Met ren- dering of Rape of the Sabine Women can indeed be understood as a revision strengthening the ideological messages of the Louvre scene. Through a higher degree of abstraction, structuring, and formaliza- tion, the second and more stoical version effectively arrests the po- tentially negative connotations of a more emotional and dramatic (more Baroque) presentation. Working against the unavoidable in- tensity, emotional and moral, of the event depicted, the manner of execution aims to absorb the horror of the rape into an aesthetic form with powerful anesthetic properties. Such an effect is sought through a "tendency to structure "39 and the firm confining of ges- ture and movement into highly idealized and restrained forms. Jan- son notes that ""thestrongly modeled figures are 'frozen in action,' like statues. "40 Working in such a manner, Poussin attempts to por- tray the drama of the rape, allotting a dignified presence to the Sabines, while essentially glorifying the Romans and striving to neu- tralize as much as possible of the viewer's emotional ~esponse to the grief of the victims.

According with these purposes, the style employed by Poussin in the second work, while growing out of the dramatic emotionality of the Baroque, constitutes a sort of gediimpfter or "subdued" Baroque,

38 Konrad Oberhuber, Poussin: The Early Years in Rome (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1988), 40.

39 Ibid. 40 Janson, History of Art, 539.

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 503

a Baroque classicism influenced by the Italian Baroque and the art of classical antiquity.41 Concerned with the imposition of order onto the chaotic world of experience, classicism privileges the values of control, abstract rationality, and the restraint of the passions.42An aesthetic version of the politics of the absolutist state, classicism en- acts a transfer of Roman imperialist ideology-with its insistence on individual sacrifice, discipline, obedience, and denial of feeling and emotion-into the seemingly apolitical values of a contemporary art. Supporting the idea of Poussin's significant investment in abso- lutist and ecclesiastical politics, Sheila McTighe identifies in his let- ters the expression of "a neoStoic ethic of calming the passions" and further observes that "the constant refrain of Poussin's remarks is a deep hatred for social disorder and any overturning of the seem- ingly fixed hierarchies of the state. "43

Consistent with the hypothesis of an underlying link to religious ideology, Costello notes that in his second version of the Rape, Poussin deliberately intensified the religious connotations. A no- table change is the addition of columns flanking Romulus, to em- phasize the idea that he is standing, in his character as ponti/ex maximus, in front of a temple. Also remarkable is the shift in Romu- lus's clothing from armor and crown to tunic, mantle, head ribbons, and wand.44Thus positioned and attired, Romulus "seems almost to perform a solemn religious act."45As Costello points out, however, Romulus's costume does not correspond to that of an ancient Roman priest. Suspecting a religious meaning but failing to find an ancient historical analogue, she concludes that "we cannot be cer- tain of Poussin's intention."46 What Costello neglects to consider, on the other hand, is the idea that, although not historically accurate in reference to Roman culture, the dress of Romulus may still be mean- ingfully understood as an attempt to establish certain visual and cul- tural links pointing in the direction, not of ancient Rome, but of Poussin's own times. Romulus's long, red mantle-together with the

41 Ibid, 538; Stewart, Aspects of the French Classical Ideal, 10. 42 Janson, ibid., 539; Stewart, ibid., 6; Clutton-Brock, Essays on Art, 40. 43 McTighe, "Nicolas Poussin's Representations of Storms," 334,342. 1·1 Costello, "Rape of the Sabine Women," 201-2. 45 Fricdlacndcr, Nicolas Pouni n, 144. 46 (:ostello, "Rape of the Sabine Women," 202.

504 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

ends of his head ribbons carefully brought forward and draped over his shoulders-can be read as allusions to the red cassock and stole of a Roman Catholic cardinal, indeed of Francesco himself.47

Christian imagery and iconography, though only subtly incorpo- rated into the painting, are a pervasive aspect of its meaning and composition. Highly significant in connection to the representation of Christian images and ideas are the figures of the Sabine women who raise their arms as they are lifted up and carried away by their captors. As it has often been pointed out, the groups of arm-waving women and their abductors are probably modeled after Giovanni Bologna's marble sculpture (ca. 1583) in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. Notable in Poussin's images are the composure and re- straint of the victims' gestures-more stylized signs of dignified grief and helplessness than evidence of active resistance.48 Part of the overall design of "crisscrossing diagonals,"49 the women's arms point toward the upper right, the general direction of the flight of the Sabines. Counterdirectionally, the Romans carry the ,vomen awayto- ward the left, a location defined by the commanding presence of Ro- mulus. Such a structuring of the space and the figures creates a series of perpendicular linear patterns reminiscent of inclined, downward-pointing crosses. Designs creating a tight link with the cross symbolism in the Berruguete scene (fig. 4), such patterns are clearly visible, for example, in the crossing of Romulus's staff by the outstretched arm of a Sabine woman and the ~esign formed by the leather straps holding together the fasces of the Hctors standing on the sides of the temple. In general, the cross pattern, the central symbol of Christianity, can be derived from and observed in the pro- jection of nearly all lines of characterization and movement among the human actors of the drama.

47 The stole, derived from the Roman pallium, had already in the fourth century taken the form of a scarf draped around the neck; originally a symbol of authority within the Roman Empire, the stole was invested by the pope upon high ecclesiastical officials as a symbol of the transference and sharing of power. The cassock, inspired by the robe used by the Roman emperor Caracalla, began to be used by the clergy in the fifth century; its color-white, red, purple, or black-was a sign of specific rank within the Church-pope, cardinal, bishop, or regular priest respectively.

48 This feature of the second version contrasts strongly with the substantially more evi- dent suffering and struggle of the figures in the Louvre scene, where the woman in the left foreground fiercely tugs at the hair of the Roman soldier abducting her.

49 Oberhuber, Poussin: The Early Years, 40.

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 505

Figure 5. Francisco de Zurbaran, The Apostle St. Peter Appearing to St. Peter Nolasco (1629), MuseD del Prado, Madrid.

Issuing from the story of St. Peter's upside-down crucifixion, the image of the inverted cross in Rape of the Sabine Women constitutes a symbol of the papacy itself and the character and power of the pope as the successor of St. Peter. The use of the image in the art of the time is well attested in such works as Francisco de Zurbanin' s The Apostle St. Peter Appearing to St. Peter Nolasco (1629, fig. 5) which shows the apostle stretched on the inverted cross in a vision granted to the thirteenth-century founder of the Mercedarian order, St. Peter No- lasco (a figure also connected with the Christian struggle against the Moors in Spain). Following the logic of and context provided by the iconography, what we observe in Rape of the Sabine Women is an act of victimization occurring under the sign of the cross and of the pope, that is, a sacrifice eventually leading to the salvation of humanity. The figures of the women uplifted by the Roman soldiers, together

506 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

with images such as that of the old nurse looking up at them in de- spair, constitute in fact a familiar part of the vocabulary of crucifix- ion scenes, with Christ raised toward or lowered from the cross and the figures of grieving women-Mary, the Magdalene, and others- witnessing the ordeal. The signs of resignation, acceptance, and even willing surrender in the Sabine women are thus highly con- gruent with the Catholic discourse of self-sacrifice and submission to the commands of a higher and wiser will, that of God, the pope, or, in this case, of Romulus in his dual character as historical founder of Rome and as symbolic Roman Catholic cardinal.

The invocation of Christian iconography in Rape of the Sabine Women accomplishes a repositioning of the rape scene within a Christian conception of history and of representation. Indeed, by juxtaposing the rape of Roman legend with allusions to significant sacrificial moments in Christian history, Poussin allegorizes the rape and reinscribes it within an atemporal and purely figural sequence of events characterized by order and wisdom and pointing in the di- rection of eventual redemption and salvation. Much of the tragic po- tential of the scene is effectively neutralized by means of this allegorical and teleological reorientation. Rome is thus seen as a first step in the direction of Christianity, one of the building blocks in the construction of the City,of God. The victims of the Romans (and of Catholic inquisitors), as sacrificial lambs, are depicted with sympathy but without any sense of condemnation toward the victimizers, who are perceived as acting according to the will and designs of God. Thus, Romulus, though performing a rather base and despicable act, can afford to remain aloof and noble, "restrained," full of "dig- nified stillness" and "contemplative wisdom"-the very picture of "the man of superior character ... [who] holds his strong impulses and emotions in check, governed by his reason. "50 Not unlike Vir- gil's Aeneas, Poussin's Romulus is represented as a man justified in the commission of atrocities by his allegiance to high ideals con- nected to the fulfillment in history of a divinely inspired plan of im- perial domination.

Often misunderstood as an escape from the political conflicts and religious controversies of his time, Poussin' s peculiar brand of clas- sicism-"based in equal measure on the Classics and on Judaeo-

50 Costello, "Rape of the Sabine Women," 203-4.

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 507

Christianity";51 a "blend of Christian and antique"52-is politically charged and well-defined in its loyalties. Motivated by an interest in legitimizing and preserving the power of the Roman Catholic Church, Poussin creates-through a classicist synthesis of Christian- ity and antiquity-a link between the Church's and the Roman claims to empire. Closely aligned with the pragmatic politics of the Italian papal courts, Poussin articulates a visual argument placing the Church's leaders, like Romulus on the temple, above the moral- ity or immorality of their own acts-exempt from criticism by virtue of their role in the historical implementation of God's designs. Rather than a separation of the pagan and the Christian, Poussin's work strives to achieve an ideological synthesis of the two and create the sense of historical and spiritual continuity between Roman past and Catholic present.

III

While the positioning of Rape of the Sabine Women within the con- text of papal and ecclesiastical politics illuminates certain aspects of the work's significance, it ultimately cannot account for the paint- ing's irreducible complexity (formal and semantic). Other levels of ideological activity in Poussin's work may be related to Christian hu- manist and civic interests running somewhat contrary to those of the Church and the Pope. That such deviance was possible in the sup- posedly absolutist political climate of Barberini Rome is supported by Nussdorfer'g observation that "there was a great deal of vitality to Roman politics" and that "the capital of the early modern papal monarchy had a celebrated local culture of political irreverence. "53 Poussin, who in fact was "hardly ever employed by the Pope," also courted, during the years of his First Roman Period, the interests and ideological preferences of a circle of humanists which included figures like Cassiano dal Pozzo.54The positions of Poussin's human- ist patrons included alternative understandings of Christianity as

51 Merot, Nicolas Poussin, 9. 52 Howard Hibbard, Poussin: The Holy Family on the Steps (New York: Viking, 1974),

46--47. 53 N llssdorft'l, Civic Politics, 8. 54 Haskell, Patron\ and Painters, 120.

508 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

well as dramatically different aesthetic tastes. It appears indeed as if Poussin "took endless trouble to specify early and obscure Christian practices that were, however, certainly familiar to Cassiano and his learned friends" and was "driven to portray a kind of severe and pu- rified religious imagery that was more acceptable to Cassiano than the flamboyant Baroque of some of his contemporaries."55 As San- tucci remarks, noting the austerity and simplicity of his aesthetic and religious values, Poussin's attitudes were in fact not at all unlike those of the Protestants so fiercely persecuted by the Church of his day.56

The influence of Cassiano' s beliefs on Poussin appears to have led the latter toward an interest in "mystery," "complexity," and "sugges- tions of hidden depths and contradictory forces. "57The reality of conflict and division in his work, however, has multiple (con) textual causes and cannot be grounded purely on supposed authorial in- tentionality or the influence of an individual or a group. As Rene Gi- rard has pointed out, even the most biased and propagandistic persecution narratives often will expose the very violence and moral problems which they are designed to concea1.58Some of the contra- dictions evident in Rape of the Sabine Women are indeed already pres- ent in its ancient textual sources. In spite of their clearly pro-Roman stance, the various accounts of the rape reveal a number of problems hinting at their own propagandistic character and their veiling of the complexity of history. Plutarch in particular-a Greek writing about Roman subjects-hints at massive efforts on the part of the Sabines and other tribes to resist Roman expansionism and the large-scale transfers of people, land, and property which accompa- nied Roman conquest. Some sources quoted by Plutarch put the actual number of abducted women at nearly seven hundred-giving a new meaning to Romulus's supposedly magnanimous gesture of allowing thirty Sabine families to retain their lands and social sta- tus.59 Livy,while also committed to the Roman cause, slips into a

55 Ibid., 110. 56 Santucci, Poussin: Tradizione ermetica, 64. 57 Haskell, Patrons and Painters, 114. 58 Rene Girard, The Scapegoat, trans. )\Tonne Freccero (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni-

versity Press, 1986). 59 Plutarch's Lives, trans. J. Smallwood, ed. A. H. Clough (New York: Bigelow, Brown, &

Co., 1911),vol. 1,62.

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 509

description which is uncharacteristically suggestive of Roman treach- ery and impiety as well as of the righteousness of the Sabines' outrage:

Turbato per metum ludicro maesti parentes virginum profugiunt, incusantes violati hospitii foedus deumque invo- cantes cuius ad sollemne ludosque per fas ac fidem decepti venissent.

The games broken by fear, the sorrowful parents of the virgins fled, claiming that the treaty of hospitality wasviolated and call- ing upon the god to whose solemn games they had come de- ceived by the pretense of divine law and trust. 60

The supposed happy submission of the women, the friendship ofRo- mans and Sabines, and the peaceful and mutually advantageous as- similation of the Sabines to Roman civic and political life are recounted by Livyand Plutarch but negated by other stories of fierce struggles, rebellions, and ongoing confrontations. In general, the story of a painless abduction with a happy ending is evidently only a thin disguise incapable of concealing the systematic dispossession and enslavement of the Sabines as well as their very real pain and ef- forts at resistance.

The inconsistent treatment of the rape of the Sabines in the his- torical narratives is also present in its literary representations. In book 8 of the Aeneid, as part of his description of the shield which Vulcan made for Aeneas, Virgil mentions the rape, along with other episodes from the early history of the Romans:

illic res Italas Romanorumque triumph os haut vatum ignarus venturique inscius aevi fecerat Ignipotens, Hlicgenus omne futurae stirpis ab Ascanio pugnataque in ordine bella. fecerat et viridi fetam Mavortis in antro procubuisse lupam, geminos huic ubera circum ludere pendentis pueros et lambere matrem impavidos, illam tereti cervice reflexa mulcere alternos et corpora fingere lingua.

60 Livy 1.9, cited from Titus Livius, Book One, ed. H. E. Gould andJ. L. Whiteley (Lon~ don: MacMillan, 1952); my translation.

510 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

nec pro cui hinc Romam et raptas sine more Sabinas consessu caveae magnis circensibus actis addiderat subitoque novom consurgere bellum Romulidis Tatioque seni Curibusque severis. post idem inter se posito certamine reges armati Iovis ante aram paterasque tenentes stabant et caesa iungebant foedera porca,

There the Lord of Fire, not ignorant of prophecy or of the things to come, fashioned the matters of Italy and the triumphs of the Romans; there he placed the race coming from the line of Ascanius and all their fights and wars in order. He wrought also a mother wolf lying in the green cave of Mars, and the fear- less twin boys playing around, hanging and sucking from the mother's dugs; she in turn, bending her smooth neck, caressed and shaped their bodies with her tongue. Not far from here he fashioned Rome and the Sabine women abducted unlawfully while the great circus games were offered to the crowd in the theater. Suddenly new war erupted between Romulus and the elder Tatius and the stern people of Cures. Mterward these same kings settled their dispute amongst themselves and stood, armed and holding cups, before the altar of jove; having killed a sow, they made treaties.61

Essentially not very different from the accounts of Plutarch and Livy, Virgil's brief reference to the rape is similarly programmatic and problematic. As in the historical narratives, the rape is said to be fol- lowed by short-lived conflicts which are quickly solved and forgotten amidst a variety of rituals, ceremonies, and treaties. More disturbing, however, in the context of one of the great works of Roman imperial propaganda, is the use of the phrase sine more (8.635; "unlawfully," "without right," "against custom"). Standing in opposition to the main ideological purposes of the epic, the phrase, the sole qualifier of the action, portrays the rape as a violation both of human custom and of divine authority-a trampling of the laws of hospitality oc- curring during the performance of a most solemn religious festival. Indeed, in its curious slippage toward alternative significations, it would appear as if the phrase sine more were an utterance

61 Aeneid 8.626-41, cited from P. Vergili Maronis Opera, ed. Otto Ribbeck (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1966); my translation.

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 511

corresponding not to the Roman but rather the Sabine point of view62-a perspective also visible in Livy's characterization of the outrage of the Sabines. Both Livy's voicing of the feelings of the Sabines and Virgil's words seem indeed, at least for a moment, to slide into modes of discourse and ideological positions not entirely congruent with Roman interests.63

Problematic art imitating problematic art, Poussin' s work exhibits much of the same ambiguity and self-contradictoriness present in its textual sources. For all its accomplishment in the aestheticizing and veiling of violence, Rape of the Sabine Women incorporates alternative voices-similar to those present in Livy, Plutarch, and Virgil-evi- dencing the grief and suffering of the victims of an oppressive power. In addition to its transmission of an inherited textual and po- litical problematic, Poussin's art becomes doubly ambiguous as it is produced in the context of new ideological problems connected to the expression of the artist's own divided position and allegiances, as well as the strictures of his technique and visual vocabulary.

As Oberhuber correctly points out, Rape of the Sabine Women ex- hibits a high degree of polarization and dualistic structuring on many levels.64 This complex structure reflects in turn the multiple conflicts which the painting, whether or not Poussin intended it so, represents. Deliberately and didactically drawn along the general thematic lines of good and evil, order and disorder, reason and pas- sion, the images in the painting are carefully crafted and arranged in such a way as to suggest to the viewer how specific meanings

62 Within the scholarship on Virgil, the idea has been persuasively argued that the Aeneid is an epic which at times seems to sympathize with the weak and the oppressed; that while glorifying the actions and characters that led to the foundation of Rome, Virgil si- multaneously undercuts that praise through veiled suggestions of the evils concealed be- hind imperial expansionism and its attendant violence; see, e.g., Adam Parry, 'The Two Voices of Virgil's Aeneid," Arion 2 (1963): 66--80. Susanne Wofford and Mihoko Suzuki per- ceive in the Aeneid a disjunctive effect and clear signs of representational stress associated with an unsuccessful attempt at reconciling the figurative scheme and the narrative, sym- bol and action, word and deed; see Wofford, The Choice of Achilles: The Ideology of Figure in the npic (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), and Suzuki, Metamorphoses of Helen: Authority, Difference and the Epic (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989).

63 Joplin sees Livy's representation of the Sabines' attempt to get revenge as particularly meaningful in its unwitting revelation of the patriarchal system "at war with itself' ("Rit- ual Work on Human Flesh," 57) and of the political potential of women's position in such a system.

64 Oberhuber, IJoll\\;n: The Early }Pfln, 39-40.

512 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

should be read. Traditional interpretation, as determined by sup- posed authorial in ten tion and a certain historicizing of the meaning of the painting, would see the Romans, and Romulus in particular, as the symbols of reason and self-control, and the terrified and flee- ing Sabines as the emblems of the uncontrolled passions.65 Outside the logic imposed by specific ideological interests, however, it seems rather odd to ascribe reason and self-control to the perpetrators of a rape and "violent passions" to the victims.66Given the obvious lim- itations of such readings and the complexity of Poussin's art, it seems justified, as Batschmann suggests, to go beyond the "conven- tional conditions for the interpretation of paintings"67 and to fur- ther explore the parameters, the limits, the failures, and the possible moments of self-transcendence in such seemingly univocal ideologi- cal representations.

Strongly inviting readings against the grain, the painting consti- tutes a reversible scene featuring polarized but shifting meanings.68 Accordingly, the elements of order and symmetry in Rape of the Sabines can be understood as evidence not of the rationality of the Roman act but as a way of emphasizing, by contrast, the chaos and disorder caused by the Romans in the midst of the orderly structures of civilization. In this way, it may seem more natural to see the up- right majesty of the architectural setting, the limpid heavens in the remote horizon, and the relatively composed and serene Sabines as symbols of goodness, order, and reason which are contrasted with the evil, disorder, and destructive passion embodied in the striving figures and violent actions of the Roman attackers, and echoed in the threatening storm clouds gathering over the scene. 69

The polarization of movement and direction in the painting also invites the interpretation of given images as symbolizing opposed principles and spiritual forces. Movement toward the right has been traditionally associated, in both classical and Christian cultures, with

65. Costello, "Rape of the Sabine Women," 203-4. 66 Ibid., 204. 67 Batschmann, Nicolas Poussin, 62. 68 Poussin's own well-attested interest in visual and conceptual inversions (Bcitschmann,

ibid., 66-67, 93) supports the reading of his works as symbolic products balanced between opposing meanings.

69 McTighe has pointed out that clouds and storms in Poussin's landscapes can be seen as symbolic representations of destructive human passions and of the ignorance associ- ated with their exercise (''Nicolas Poussin's Representations of Storms," 346).

FIDEL FAJARDO-ACOSTA 513

righteousness and goodness, while movement to the left has been re- served for the characterization of evil and tragic processes. From the point of view of the actors in the drama facing or oriented toward the viewer (i.e. Romulus and many of the Romans), right and left correspond to the direction of the movement of Romans and Sabines respectively. A particularly significan t figure in this respect is that of the helmeted Roman in the center midground who, al- though showing his back to the viewer, leads away a Sabine woman while pointing the waywith his right arm.70 From the perspective of the viewer (and of figures in the painting similarly oriented, i.e. many of the Sabines), however, those directions must be necessarily reversed-leaving the Romans moving toward the left and the Sabines to the right. This reversal and re-reading of direction and significance are of course dependent upon an inversion, embodied in the perspective of a critical viewer, with respect to the point of view of particular figures in the painting (for whom right and left, good and evil, may have the exact opposite meanings).

Although certain traditional interpretations insist on the purely conventional and unproblematic use of color and color polarities in Poussin, such factors can also contribute to a counter-characteriza- tion of Sabines and Romans along alternate moral and spiritual lines. Though no consistent color pattern can be observed among all the figures in the scene, the color features of the dress, skin, and faces of certain prominent figures allow for significant emblematic effects. Thus, the Romans can be associated with the color red be- cause of the dominant hue of Romulus's attire. The Sabine women, on the other hand, can be linked to the color blue by virtue of the dress of the two women represented in the foreground and the one in the center mid-ground (the three also forming a triangular pat- tern calling attention to the figures) .71 The whiteness of the Sabine women's skin also constitutes a point of contrast with the dark skin and shadowed visages of several Romans, particularly those closer to Romulus on the left foreground (an association reinforced by the shadowed appearance of Romulus himself and the darkness of his

70 Carrier notes the significance of this couple as suggesting the eventual contentment of the abducted Sabine women (Poussin's Paintings, 126).

71 In connection to the representation of conflict and its possible solution over time, Carrie, has noted the usc of blue and reo in the characterization of Sabines and Romans respectively-though more noticeably in the Louvre version (ibid., 188-89).

514 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

hair and beard). The associations of red and darkness with concepts and images such as destructive passions, evil, fire, death, and even hell are difficult to avoid. On the other hand, white and blue, at least in Western art, have generally been used to symbolize modesty, pu- rity, innocence, goodness, and heavenly things.72 That the dark storm clouds can be linked with the similarly dark Romans, while the blue sky and the sunlight become naturally attached to the Sabines, strongly suggests that the conflict in the sky between the forces of light and darkness mirrors an analogous clash taking place on the earthly level.

Facial expressions and bodily postures can be similarly analyzed. While the Sabines, even in the midst of their suffering, display stoic, dignified and elegant expressions and postures, the Romans exhibit faces and bodies distorted by their violent efforts. The prominent figure of the Roman in the right foreground, standing between a Sabine man and his wife, may be seen as a highly significant and al- most emblematic characterization of the Romans as a whole. Di- vided against himself by the conflicting efforts of rushing away with his prey toward the left and turning against the Sabine man on the right, this figure presents a number of features strongly suggestive of disproportion, excess, and contradiction. Notable in the figure are the neck and torso twisted in opposing directions; a face contorted by anger and partially concealed by an upraised arm; the right arm invisible; eyes mism~tched; a threateningly swollen musculature. This highly asymmetrical figure can in fact readily function as a per- sonification of explosive passion, violence, disorder, lack of control, and even irrationality. The mingling of figures such as this one with those of the Sabines produces an interesting stylistic effect derived from the clash and contrast of the classicist and the Baroque, the proportionate and the monstrous, the elegant and the grotesque. The represented battle can therefore express not only the

72 The conventionality of color polarities (dark/male, light/female) as well as the ex- ceptions to the general scheme of distinctions (e.g. the red clothing of the old nurse, the white horse) do not invalidate the general tendency of the work and its capacity for non- conventional signification. Although there is disagreement concerning the precise signif- icance of color in specific works by Poussin, it is generally admitted, in the recent scholarship, that individual colors and color polarities possess symbolic and figural at- tributes throughout Poussin's oeuvre (Carrier, ibid.; Batschmann, Nicolas Poussin, 32; Merot, Nicolas Poussin, 176-77).

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confrontation of conflicting ideological, political, religious, and eth- ical concerns but also the dialectical engagement of radically differ- ent artistic styles.

Animal symbolism, a staple of Western art since antiquity, also contributes to the voicing of the painting's complex ideas. Standing immediately above the muscular warrior in the foreground (indeed almost growing out of him), the image of a Roman mounted on a white horse offers a richly symbolic representation.73 On an initial level the white horse and its rider are symbols of the power, political and sexual, associated with the Roman and Catholic interests repre- sented in the painting. A classicist or humanist reading of the im- agery can yield, however, diametrically opposed results. The ancient understanding of horses and riders as symbols of the passions and of reason was well-known to Renaissance artists and scholars.74 The image of the horse and variations of it such as the centaur (often as- sociated in Greek myth with lust, rape, drunkenness, and unruly be- havior) appear indeed to have played an important role in classical and Renaissance culture as symbols of the dangers of unchecked passion and the opposition between nature and civilization.75 In his influential study of symbols in traditional cultures and literatures, Cirlot asserts that "the horses, which Neptune with his trident lashes up out of the waves, symbolize ... the blind forces of primigenial chaos. "76 Following such an understanding, the Roman rider in Poussin's scene-seizing a Sabine woman, abandoning the reins of his horse, and allowing it to rear out of control-offers an unmis- takable image of unbridled desire, animality, and irrationality. The fact that the rape takes place in violation of the Consualia or sacred rites of Equestrian Neptune (Neptune of the Horses) lends further support to the idea that Poussin' s images can be related to the

73 The Louvre version features two such riders which closely associate it with the sym- bolism of the Berruguete scene (fig. 4).

74 A concept originating in Plato's images of the horse and the charioteer of the soul (Phaedrus 246-256)-Wind notes the significance of the horse in pagan antiquity and the Renaissance as "sensuous passion or libido." An illustration from Achille Bocchi's Symboli- cae quaestiones (1574) represents the "taming of the passions" as a man holding the rein of a rearing horse. See Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1968), 145 and plate 41.

75 (~eoffrey S. Kirk, The Natllrf' afGreek Myths (Woodstock NY:Overlook Press, 1974),85, 207-9.

76 J. E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols (New York: Philosophical Library, 1971), 152.

516 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

Figure 6. Nicolas Poussin, Massacre of the Innocents (ca. 1625-26), Petit Palais, Musee des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris (Photo: Phototheque des Musees de la Ville de Paris-Pierrain).

symbolic representation of a sacrilegious act where the uncontrolled horse acts as the symbol of destructive passional forces no longer contained by the rules of civilizing rituals.

Following Batschmann's emphasis on the importance of "the in- terrelation of the works, "77an examination of the relations between Rape of the Sabines and other of Poussin' s works-two versions of Mas- sacre of the Innocents (1625-26 and 1630, figs. 6 and 7) and Holy Fam- iiy on the Steps (1648, fig. 8) 78-lends support to the perception of the Roman act as a heinous violation of sacred principles. Massacre of the Innocents represents the slaughter of children supposedly ordered by Herod in an attempt to prevent the infant Jesus from

77 Batschmann, Nicolas Poussin, 62. 78 Holy Family on the Steps (1648), also known as the Madonna o/the Steps, is currently at

the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. An earlier version is owned by the Cleve- land Museum of Art.

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Figure 7. Nicolas Poussin, Massacre of the Innocents (ca. 1630), Musee Conde, Chantilly (Photo: Giraudon).

growing up to become king of the jews (Matthew 2:1-16). The ear- lier version shows the struggle of soldiers and mothers and features several children fallen to the ground. The second version shows a single soldier raising his sword and preparing to slay a child, whose neck he steps on, as he pushes the mother away.In general, the ar- chitectural settings, the positioning of the children on the ground, the soldiers' postures, their struggle with the women, and the man- ner in which the women's bodies intertwine with the figures of the attackers resonate visually with the figures and actions depicted in the Rn,pe. Indeed, the suggestive correspondences of the Massacre's images with the figures of the fallen Sabine children and their mother entangled with the Roman soldier make it appear as if the earlier works acted as an exercise for the relevant figures in the later

518 Text, History in Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women

Figure 8. Nicolas Poussin, Holy Family on the Steps (ca. 1648), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Samuel H. Kress Collection.

scene. If the comparison has any value, how~ver, an importation of highly negative meaning and connotations seems also inevitable- leaving the Romans exposed as not only perpetrators of the cruellest sort of violence against the most defenseless of creatures but also as Herod-like enemies of Christ.

Holy Family on the Steps, on the other hand, showsJoseph, Mary, the infants Christ andJohn the Baptist, andJohn's mother Elizabeth sit- ting on a set of steps within an architectural setting. Although this picture lacks any elements of cruelty or violent drama, the figures depicted can be compared to the Sabine family in the right and cen- ter foregrounds of the rape scene. In addition to obvious corre- spondences in the number, gender, and age of the characters, the resemblances in the physiognomies of Elizabeth and the old nurse, as well as the two sets of curly-haired infants, seem highly suggestive. Indeed, aside from variations in the mood and circumstances in which they find themselves, the characters shown in the two scenes could be said to be the same. As Howard Hibbard observes, Holy

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Family on the Steps is "one of the great images of its time." The paint- ing has a "dream-like, almost surreal perfection" and depicts "a group of unusual unity. "79 Through figures which radiate a sense of peace, harmony, love, and concord with one another and with their environment, Poussin offers a vision of human life ennobled and in many ways equated with the divine. An inter-reading of the two paintings, however, has the potential of disrupting that harmony and creating the shocking sense that the family torn to pieces by the Roman soldier could be the Holy Family itself. By "unframing" the picture80 and allowing it to enter into dialectical interaction with other images (produced both before and after it), it becomes possi- ble to understand the scene in entirely different terms.

The notions of the violation of sacred principles and of civiliza- tion overwhelmed by the forces of lawlessness and brutality may also be perceived in the image of the basilica standing in the right back- ground of the Met scene. In his first version of the subject, Poussin depicted in the background the Capitoline temple and other build- ings. In his second work, however, he strove to accurately recreate a Roman basilica described by Vitruvius.81 The most important func- tion of the basilica in Roman times was to serve as a court of law in the administration of justice. Soberly drawn along horizontal and vertical lines-firmly rooted in the ground and rising heavenward- the basilica acts as an effective visual and symbolic expression of order, of permanence, and of the potential for connection between the human and the divine. The building embodying the concept of justice in effect seems to balance, measure, focus, and judge the ac- tions of the human protagonists. Clamoring for justice in the midst of their ordeal, the Sabines raise their arms toward the basilica and the heavens-some actually attempting to find refuge within the building. Meanwhile the Romans, moving in the opposite direction, show a disregard of all law, obedience only to Romulus. Standing high and opposite to the basilica, the Roman leader oversees the ac- tions below and offers the pictorial image of an arrogant and selfish human agent opposed to justice and other higher powers. Thus po- sitioned, Romulus assumes the role of an antithesis of the human

79 Hibbard, Poussin: Thf Holy Family on the Steps, 14-15. 80 Carrier, Poussin's Paintings, 26ff. ~1Costello, "Rape of the Sabine Wornell," 201.

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law and divine principles addressed by the Sabines and embodied in the basilica and the heavens. Piety and hubris, humble submissive- ness and arrogant lawlessness are therefore concepts which can be legitimately associated with the figures of the Sabines and the Ro- mans respectively. Taken in a slightly different sense, the building, shown with darkened doors and windows, creates the ominous sug- gestion that this house of justice is empty and neglected-a symbol of the absence of justice in the scene, of Roman justice as a form without substance.

Finally, in both classical and Christian terms, the figure of Romu- lus can be read as a disturbing symbol of dark spiritual forces. In his character as hubristic desecrator of the Consualia, deceiver of his neighbors, victimizer of the weak, destroyer of the (holy) family, dressed in shades of red and flanked by pillars of darkness, Romulus constitutes the very image of a Satanic agent-the concealed root of all the strife, pain, and tragedy embodied in the scene. Shown as the prince of this world, Romulus-evoking also figures like Herod and Pontius Pilate-commands the victimization of the innocent for selfish and base purposes connected with the exercise of imperialist power. While the symbolic direction of the Sabines is toward righteousness and heaven, the staff of Romulus points downwards, towards death and hell. The sign of the cross created by the juxta- position of Romulus's staff and the upraised arm of the Sabine woman depicted under him transforms the rape into a crime analo- gous to the crucifixion of Christ-raising the victims to the status of holy martyrs and making the harshest possible comment against their tormentors.

IV

The coexistence of profoundly contradictory messages within the work of Poussin appears to be related to the complicated nature of Poussin's own position as an artist in search of patronage in Bar- berini Rome. Simultaneously seeking the support of the Pope and his associates and also catering to humanist patrons, Poussin found himself serving very disparate masters. Such divided service consti- tutes an aspect of the complex political realities of Barberini Rome and attests to the struggles between absolutist powers and their

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lesser but nevertheless significant political and ideological antago- nists. The work of Poussin-implicated in the voicing of alternative political and aesthetic positions and precariously balanced between the interests of various actual and potential patrons-is then neces- sarily problematic and reflective of a world of complex oppositions, negotiations, and compromises. While Poussin probably intended, in Rape of the Sabine Women, to flatter the Pope and his cardinals and also support the Church's inquisitorial and Counter-Reformation missions, his painting can also be read as a humanist expose and condemnation of Roman Catholic worldly ambitions and, in partic- ular, of the persecution of Protestants and other dissidents.

As Stephanie Jed points out, however, the humanist appropriation of Roman legends and other materials remains itself relatively blind to the specific problem of rape and continues a tradition of capital- izing on the act and representation of rape in the pursuit of politi- cal interests.82 In that sense, the victimized Sabines become once again "surrogate victims" and scapegoats of sorts in the clash of op- posed patriarchal powers.83 Susanne Wofford-in her examination of the artistic and ideological problems of representations of rape in Renaissance art and literature-correctly points out that, for all their ideological labor, such representations "may not leave their ori- gins behind them as easily or as completely as the myth would re- quire. "84 New political and ideological problems thus arise at the very moment when old ones are confronted and seemingly over- come. The symbolic medium for the delivery of a humanist chal- lenge to ecclesiastical abuses, the rape scene is necessarily problematic and emerges as the ground for the veiling and justifica- tion of other forms of sexual and/or political violence.

Centered on the image of an unjust but ultimately successful and unpunished rape-with all its implications of forced biological, cul- tural, and political reproduction-Poussin's effort may be seen as characteristic and revealing of the struggles, the ambitions, and the limitations of artistic representations. Art here is seen as heavily im- plicated in the political world, necessarily enmeshed in the ugly re- alities of seeking and flattering potential patrons, begging for their

82 Jed, Chaste Thinking, 11-12. 83 Joplin, "Ritual Work on Human Flesh," 52££. 84 Wofford, "Social Aesthetics," 190.

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money, and applauding often questionable actions. The fact that multiple statements find a voice within the work of art can be un- derstood in part as the result of a heterogeneous political reality where dissent was in fact possible, as Nussdorfer suggests, and a fea- ture of a relative balance of powers. Such a variety of readings, how- ever, can also be seen as issuing fronI the inherent textuali ty of the materials, the medium, the subjectivities, and the cultural and his- torical contexts of the work of art. Although dramatically separated by their diverging assumptions regarding the ontological status of subject, object, and art work, historicity and textuality can neverthe- less converge, if only in formal terms, in a recognition of the in- escapable fragmentation and overdetermination of art itself and the realities which it seeks to represent.

Creighton University