s not surprising that the subject of rape and abduction is familiar content matter for many of the early male artists. Pouissin's and Ruben's Rape of the Sabine Women is a classic example. These paintings depict women being torn from their families and loved ones and forcibly abducted. In sculpture, rape subject matter often justified the representation of nude or nearly nude female figures. Two examples are Hiram Powers' Greek Slave and Erastus Dow Palmer's White Captive. Although the nudity of these statues generated public outrage during the Victorian era, they gradually found acceptance by men who rationalized that the women depicted in the statues were not flaunting their sexuality, thus leaving intact the male fantasy of dominance.
It is not only the early artists who indulged in misogynist expressions toward women; Pablo Picasso is noteworthy as a modern artist whose negative views toward women seeped into much of his later work. Granted, many of Picasso's early works reflected a profound love and respect for women. Among these works are
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