Friday, October 22, 2010

Happy Name Day, Sabina! Všechno nejlepší k svátku!

Today we honor Sabina.  Happy Name Day, Sabina!
The name Sabina is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Sabina is "Sabine".  The Sabines were a tribe living in central Italy during the time when Romulus and Remus established the city of Rome.  Romulus arranged mass kidnapping of the Sabine women so as to provide wives for the citizens of Rome.

The Abduction of the Sabine Women (probably 1633-1634) by Nicolas Poussin

The first Romans invited the neighboring Sabines to Rome with the intention of forcibly retaining their young women as wives.  Romulus raised his cloak as the prearranged signal for  the warriors to seize the women.  The mother, her babies, and an old woman in the foreground were captured accidentally in the turmoil.  he yellow armor worn by the man at the right is modeled after a Roman "lorica" that was made of leather and reproduced the anatomy of the male torso.  The painting belonged to the maréchal de Créquy and seems to date about June 1633 to July 1634, when he was a French ambassador to Rome.