An exploration of the many paintings of Lucretia

research for a new project 

[thedeathoflucretia]

The death of Lucretia, with the Exile of Brutus and Rape of Lucretia

Pieter Cock van Aelst the Elder

Early 15th Century

Oil on Canvas

69.8 x 53.3 cm

[thedeathoflucretia]

The Death of Lucretia

Jacopo Palma il Giovane

1600

Oil on canvas

125.8x109.3 cm

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Lucretia

Sebastiano Ricci

1685

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Tarquin and Lucretia

Luca Giordano

16th Century

Oil on Canvas

126 x 98 cm

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Lucretia

Master of the Lille Adoration

Early 15th Century

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Lucretia

Lucas Cranach the Elder

1525

Oil on wood

56 × 39 cm

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Lucretia

Lucas Cranach the Elder

1509

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Lucretia Committing Suicide

Lucas Cranach the Elder

1550

Oil on Canvas

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Lucretia

Michele Tosini

Early 15th Century

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Lucretia

Francesco Francia

Early 15th Century

Oil on wood

53.3 x 43.8cm

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Tarquin and Lucretia

Jan van Hemessen

1566

72.8 x 92 cm

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Tarquin and Lucretia

Simone Pignoni

16th century

Oil on Canvas

177.5 x 146.7 cm

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Lucretia Lucas Cranach the Elder or the Younger 1540 - 1545 76.2 x 55.4 cm

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Lucretia

Raphael 

1508–12

Pen and brown ink over black chalk, partially incised with a stylus (recto), rubbed with black chalk for transfer

39.7 x 29.2 cm

This drawing, produced by Raphael in his early Roman period, reveals his arresting command of antique Roman sculpture and literary sources. According to Ovid's Fasti and Livy's History of Rome, the noble matron Lucretia committed suicide after being raped by Sextus, son of the tyrant Tarquin the Proud. Her husband and, later, Junius Brutus avenged her honor by leading a revolt that helped institute the republic as a form of government. Raphael recast the heroic early Roman legend to focus on the rhetorical gesture of Lucretia as a model of sublime virtue, heightening the drama of her death by depicting her about to plunge the dagger into her chest. The sculptural grandeur and monumentality of form speak to Raphael's encounter with Roman antiquity soon after his arrival in the Eternal City in 1508. The proportions of the idealized figure appear to be those of the canon of antique sculpture, though she is not based directly on a Roman statue. The style and pen-and-ink technique (the outlines are indented with a stylus for transfer) are closely connected to the large-scale preliminary studies for the figures in the Parnassus and School of Athens frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura at the Vatican.

[thedeathoflucretia]

The Suicide of Lucretia

Joos Van Cleve

1520 - 1525

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Lucretia Lucas Cranach the Elder 1529 56.6 x 38.2 cm

[thedeathoflucretia]

Lucretia Lucas Cranach the Younger 1540 - 1545 75 x 56 cm