Female figure standing in the right-hand margin of the third sheet of the Rape of the Sabine Women 1570 - 1615

Cherubino Alberti etched this print, a female figure, part of the Rape of the Sabine Women. She stands poised, a symbol of classical virtue, holding what appears to be a surveyor’s tool in her right hand. Consider this attribute, this instrument of measurement. It echoes through history, from the plumb bobs of ancient Egyptian architects to the compasses of Renaissance geometers. What does it signify here? Perhaps Alberti is suggesting a world that must be brought into alignment, a world of discord subdued by reason and order. The act of measurement is as old as civilization, a human imperative to quantify and understand our place in the cosmos. This figure, draped in classical garb, carries the weight of cultural memory, a reminder that the past is never truly past. It resurfaces, evolves, and takes on new meanings in different historical contexts.