|
Lucretia, the virtuous wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, committed suicide, as she could not endure the shame of being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, as Livy related. This deed secured the legendary Roman lady a place in the series of exemplary females that in European painting, particularly in court circles, were depicted as examples of virtue.
In this painting Lucretia is a genteel Flemish bourgeois lady, who having undone her fashionable gown, grasp the dagger with both hands and stabs herself in the heart. This makes the muddy-green veil on her head start an elegant dance and the wide arms of the gown flutter gently. Lucretia is unaccompanied by any of the protagonists of the story, a characteristic of this painting that corresponds to the trend shared by both the North and the South.
|
