To Those Which They Never Turned Another Cheek: 

Intervention of the Sabine Women, David, c.1796

"There is no luxury in a painting where females reveal their dominant form!"

David paid no attention to the insults of his audiences, choosing only to immerse himself in the creative recesses of his prison-cell. Incarcerated for his affiliations with Robespierre, a visit from his estranged wife inspired David to paint his own rendition of the Sabine classic in her honor.

In direct contrast to the works of Giambologna, Poussin, and Rubens, Jacques- Louis David painted the women in the limelight, as the interveners who, as he named the painting, “enforced peace by running between the combatants.”

Historians attribute the initial rejection of David’s 1796 rendition to the outcome of France’s war, which ended up leading to the Reign of Terror. During a time when man fought man for a form of political relief that was always just out of their reach, The Intervention of the Sabine Women’s blatant worship of women infuriated an already-angry population of patriarchs.

The central form in the painting, the alabaster Hersilia, (also identified as the wife of Romulus,) spreads her arms in effort to separate her father from attacking her husband, simultaneously thrusting herself and her young children between the warring parties. The hesitation depicted on her husband’s frozen movement, as well as through the movement that many soldiers take in order to sheath their swords, reinforce David’s message to the French people. The painter used the power of the female form to plead with France’s population, hoping to inspire them to unite after the violence of the revolution.

Unfortunately, the painting did not succeed in reuniting France. Quite the contrary, the Sabine women insulted French men, who were disgusted with the concept that a woman had to interfere before men may see reason.