The Rape of the Sabine Women according to David (Sabine Ratto D’après David)（1974），Photograph，250 × 170 cm，Courtesy of the artist

Since the late ’60s, Luigi Ontani’s art has been reflecting on hybrid aesthetics, where the body is seen as a poetic site, interpreted as body-as-double, body-as-mask, the myths of the body, body language as well as body time. He is known for his tableaux vivants, where Ontani employs photography to present himself as a re-enacted and re-interpreted subject, inspired by antique icons of art, religion, mythologies and history. The Rape of the Sabine Women according to David (Sabine Ratto D’après David) is one such work, where Ontani pays homage to French painter, Jacques-Louise David’s (1748-1825) painting, the Rape of the Sabine Women.. 

Here, Ontani is the subject himself, taking the pose of one of the nude Roman soldiers depicted in the Rape of the Sabine Women, and points a finger at that very painting. Such an approach constituted an innovative use of photography, because it was not recording what it was usually supposed to do in terms of here and now (hic et nunc). Rather, it achieved the opposite of there and then (illic et tunc). This encourages viewers to consider and re-interpret past civilisations’ behaviours, as well as emphasise the concept that culture is a continuum.