Lucretia

Lucretia is the legendary heroine of ancient Rome who is the quintessential virtuous wife. She was the beautiful wife of the nobleman Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. Sextus Tarquinius (often known as just Tarquin), the son of the tyrant Etruscan king of Rome, raped her, and she committed suicide because of her perceived shame, but only after she exacted an oath of vengeance against the Tarquin family from her father and husband. The enraged populace rebelled against the Tarquins and drove them out in 509 B.C.E. and this event marks the beginning of the Roman Republic.


The Suicide of Lucretia
Boucicaut Master, c. 1415
Tempera and gold on parchment,
16 9/16 x 11 11/16 in.
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum

Lucretia, after 1508
Raphael (1483-1520)
Pen and brown ink over black chalk,
39.7 x 29.2 cm
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Death of Lucretia, 1513
Il Sodoma (c.1477-1549)
Oil on wood, 71 x 61 cm
Budapest, Museum of Fine Arts

Lucretia and Her Consort,
Tarquinius Collatinus, c. 1515
Titian Vecellio (1490 - 1576)
Oil on wood, 82.5 x 68.5 cm
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

The Suicide of Lucretia, 1518
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Oil on lime panel, 168 x 74.8 cm
Munich, Alte Pinakothek

Lucretia, c. 1524
Lucas Cranach, the Elder (1472-1553)
Oil on lime panel
Munich, Alte Pinakothek

Lucretia, 1533
L. Cranach, the Elder (1472-1553)
Oil on wood, 37.3 x 23.9 cm
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie

Rape of Lucretia, 1568-71
Titian Vecellio (1490 - 1576)
Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum

Tarquin and Lucretia, 1570 -1576
Titian Vecellio (1490 - 1576)
Oil on canvas, 114 x 100 cm
Vienna, Akademie der Bildenden Künst

Lucretia, c. 1580/83
Paolo Veronese (1528-1588)
Oil on canvas, 109 x 90.5 cm
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Lucretia
Unknown, possibly Czech, c. 1600
Chalcedony cameo, 2 in. (height)
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum

Death of Lucretia, 1612
Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638)
Woodcut
Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art

Lucretia, c. 1621
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1653)
Oil on canvas, 54 x 51 in
Genoa, Palazzo Cattaneo-Adorno

Lucretia, 1642-43
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 - 1653)
Oil on canvas
Naples, Museo di Capodimonte

Lucretia, 1664
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
Oil on canvas, 120 x 101 cm
Washington, D.C., National Gallery

Lucretia, 1666
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
Oil on canvas, 105 x 92.5 cm
Minneapolis , Institute of Arts

Tarquin and Lucretia, c. 1695/1700
Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665 - 1747)
Oil on canvas, 195 x 171.5 cm
Washington, D.C., National Gallery

Tarquin and Lucretia, c. 1750
Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770)
Oil on canvas, 140 x 103 cm
Augsburg , Staatsgalerie am Shaezler-Palais

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