Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus

Castor and Pollux, the heavenly twins, swoop down to carry off the two daughters of Leucippus, and the whole canvas spins into a great X of rearing horses, twisting nudes, and clutching hands. Rubens builds the abduction as pure dynamic energy, the pale, ample bodies of the women set against the bronzed men and dark steeds, every limb caught mid-motion. Now in Munich's Alte Pinakothek, it is a showpiece of Baroque movement and flesh - violence and desire whipped into a balanced, churning wheel that somehow holds together.