Sabine

This striking tapestry is based on a painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting ‘The Sabine Women’ in battle. According to legend, in the early days after the building of the city of Rome, the Romans abducted women from neighbouring Sabine to populate their city as they had a shortage of women after the war. As revenge for this abduction, the Sabines attacked the city of Rome, though this was delayed as Hersilia, the daughter of the leader of Sabine, Tatius, was previously married to Romulus the Roman leader and has bore 2 children with him. In the battle of Sabine as shown in this tapestry, an unexpected twist occurs where the women of Sabine sided with their husbands and throws themselves into the battle between their husbands and their fathers. In this scene we see Hersilia between her father and her husband in a pleading stance as the other women join her in her stance in this war. This tapestry is lined and has a tunnel for ease of hanging.