Vincent Fischer

Vincent Fischer
Schmidham 1729 – 1810 Vienna
The Rape of the Sabine Women
Part of the cycle in the Belvedere Vienna
Oil on canvas, relined
52.5 x 75 cm
Signed and dated 1796 lower right

Vinzenz Fischer was an important representative of late Baroque history painting in the Habsburg Empire. After studying in Rome, he taught at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts from 1764 and influenced generations of artists as a professor of history painting. His works are characterized by academic rigour, clear composition and a pronounced interest in antique subjects. Several of his paintings are in Austrian collections, including an important cycle in the Belvedere in Vienna, to which the present work could also belong stylistically and thematically.
The painting shows a dramatically staged battle scene in front of the gates of a fortified city. Roman-dressed generals and soldiers enter the city, while tumultuous scenes play out in the foreground and middle ground: Women are violently robbed and led away, which refers to the historical motif of the robbery of the Sabine women. According to Roman legend, the robbery was an act of strategic violence: in order to remedy the lack of women in the newly founded Rome, Romulus abducted women from the neighboring Sabine tribes in order to marry them off to his followers – a mythological origin of the Roman state.
In the center of the picture is a woman dressed in white, flanked by two generals in splendid garb. The one on the right is pointing towards the open city gate with an outstretched arm, while the one on the left is holding his ground with his hand on his hip – the scene seems to depict the moment of a decision or conflict. The composition is carefully constructed: dynamic diagonals, moving postures and deliberate triangular compositions in the foreground direct the viewer’s gaze and create an exciting pictorial architecture.
The painterly execution combines baroque movement with classicist clarity – an expression of the transitional period in which Fischer worked. The emotionally charged scenery, the combination of military power, mythological subject matter and the role of the female victim make the work an impressive example of the narrative pictorial art of the late 18th century.