Though many artists are insightful critics of politics, few are as vivid as Pablo Picasso. In 1962, Picasso expressed his outrage against the Cuban Missile Crisis with a series of paintings named The Rape of Sabine Women. The content of these paintings is based on Roman historian Livy’s Stories of Rome. Picasso projects the universality of victimhood in war by drawing parallels between the ancient Roman story and the contemporary global crisis. The works reveal Picasso’s overt criticism of Livy by arguing that innocent civilians are victims of politics. Let’s take a close look at the paintings through the eyes of Picasso.

Picasso Hears News

On 22 October 1962, President Kennedy disclosed the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba, triggering a crisis that took the two superpowers to the brink of a nuclear war. In no more than one day, news of the crisis reached France, making Picasso realize the very real threat of the annihilation of humanity. Instead of directly depicting the disaster, Picasso cast the contemporary conflicts in the showdown between Romans and Sabines. What are the hidden meanings of retelling an old history? 

According to Livy, early Romans, who suffered a shortage of marriageable women, invited the neighboring Sabines to Rome and then forced all Sabine young women to be their wives. Livy imposes his self-serving male point of view on the story by misleadingly implying that the rape sustained Rome’s population that this benefit exceeds the price of women’s suffering. Livy further alleviates Romans’ sins by arguing that the Romans compensated Sabine women with property rights, a claim once again assuming that violent rape is desirable for women. 

What Can We See?

Picasso picked a legendary moment following the rape when the women, then contented wives and mothers, plead for reconciliation between their husbands and fathers. Surprisingly, Picasso didn’t follow Livy’s narrative which glorifies the peaceful ending, instead highlighting the destructive impact of the conflict. Specifically, Picasso conflates the moment of rape and the aftermath, depicting the brutish Romans and Sabines ignoring and trampling on the exposed figure of the victims. 

In other words, Picasso thinks that atrocity is timeless as it is not the end of rape but the beginning of another suffering. He disagrees with Livy’s justification of Sabine women’s sacrifice for the Rome, instead, he sees the Sabine women as victims of both rape and war. On the middle bottom of the painting, a Sabine woman is sprawled helplessly on her back, her clothes in disarray, explicitly referring to the sexual assault. As our eyes adjust to the frenetic upper part of the painting, we see two indifferent cavalries fight fiercely with swords in hand. One even steps on the chest of the anguished woman which indicates the Sabine woman’s identity as a war victim. Through depicting the woman’s agony, Picasso reveals an ugly reality that those in power will never care about the suffering of civilians, nor will they care whether the suffering will continue.

The most obvious meaning of this series, when interpreted against the background of the ongoing Cold War, is fairly straightforward. The tense hostile relationship between the two cavalries mirrors the Cold War rivalry. There is no question that a potential nuclear war led by the USSR and the USA would wipe out civilians, cities, and cultures. Picasso employs Livy’s story as a metaphor for the adverse outcome of a nuclear war — a rape of the entire world. This painting graphically captures the universal tragedies of war and the senseless destruction of innocent lives. 

Speaks for the Victims

Picasso, sympathetic to the victims, created his own narrative of violence through their eyes. The series of The Rape of Sabine Women is built on the impression of crowds and panic. The painting below is another piece in this series. We can see that all victims’ bodies are distorted in agony. Eyes are dislocated, mouths are open like holes, bodies are shaped like broken branches. The overwhelming pain makes us wonder: how could Romans believe that the privileges and compensations would comfort the wounded souls? The powerful visual message provides a different view through which to read human history: wars do nothing good but damaging humans. 

Great artists always speak for the victims. In the post Sirens Are All Around Us, my classmate Persephone Sween-Argyros analyzes Margaret Atwood’s poem, Siren Song, a retelling of The Odyssey from a Siren’s perspective. The poem characterizes the Siren as a trapped “housewife” who is forced to sing against her wishes to seduce and entertain males. It is no different than the dilemma encountered by the Sabine women in Picasso’s paintings. The powerless women symbolize the innocent civilians being silenced by men of power. The universal indifference to civilians’ suffering from the men of power is once again highlighted in the art piece. 

Picasso’s paintings are ideological weapons against violence. The paintings reverberate in the heart of every honest person, strengthening their faith in peace and inspiring them to fight for the anti-war movement. In the end, the painting does not appear to have one exclusive meaning. Perhaps the fact that brutal wars continue to be fought keeps The Rape of Sabine Women as timeless and universally relatable today as it was in 1962.

Author: Hi! I’m Eliza Ge, a sophomore student at Colgate University. My majors are in Art and Art History and Anthropology. I hope my college journey will nurture my intellectual curiosity and spark passion for the academic field. If you are interested in my article and want to discuss it with me, contact me at yge@colgate.edu.