CRANACH, Lucas the Elder
(b. 1472, Kronach, d. 1553, Weimar)

Suicide of Lucretia

1509
Ink and wash on paper, 131 x 95 mm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

In 1509 Cranach made a pair of ink and wash drawings of the Suicide of Lucretia. Framing the naked torso of the heroine with vibrant strands of her hair and the fur lining of the mantle falling from her shoulders and hips, Cranach studies have an erotic charge. The drawings were utilised in a painting of 1513, part of the decoration of the bridal bed of John the Steadfast and Margaret of Anhalt.