Nicholas Poussin's " The Abduction of the Sabine Women" is a very powerful, emotional, and theatrical piece of art. In this painting all of the people are frozen in their actions. It looks as if, the women are being taken away from their families by soldiers. There are babies on the ground crying while this struggle is taking place. There is a man that looks like royalty watching this happen. There are gray skies in the painting which give it a feeling of remorse and sadness.
The actions in this painting show a clear battle and struggle between the two groups of people. They all are fighting for what they believe in. The women are being taken away from their families by soldiers. The focal point of the picture would be the royal figure in bright red clothing. He is standing over this great battle as if he was the cause of it. A battle is shown by the swords, and by the soldiers taking charge. A struggle is shown by the expressions on the faces of those being taken away and the expressions on their family members faces. This is the most interesting part of this work of art. Emotion is shown throughout this painting extremely well.
The colors seen most in this painting are red and blue. Red shows a sign of evil and the blue shows innocence. It seems to represent good and evil. The gray sky gives the whole picture a gloomy and evil feeling. There are a number of people in this painting, which makes it look a little crowded and it is hard to take it all in at one glance. If I were to give this painting another name it would be "The Attack." I would name it this because that is exactly what looks like is happening in the painting. The two names are very similar because this picture clearly shows a fight of some sort. If this painting had sounds, screaming and crying would be heard, along with the sounds of the swords hitting each other. To be in this painting would be horrible. It would be full of fear and strength at the same time.