A female figure throwing up her arms, seen from behind, embraced by an advancing warrior: for a Rape of the Sabines

Probably a study for one of the groups of figures in the fresco of the Rape of the Sabines in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome, H. Röttgen, Il Cavaliere d'Arpino, exhib. cat., Rome, Palazzo Venezia, 1973, p. 166. Two related drawings, of similar subjects to the present sheet, are in the Kunsthaus, Zurich, H. Röttgen, op. cit., nos. 143-4. The frescoes are dated by Dr. Röttgen to the later part of Arpino's career, circa 1635-40.