Label TextThis is one of three paintings of Lucretia by the Bolognese goldsmith-turned-painter Francia. The story of Lucretia was popular in Renaissance Italy as a moralising tale of virtue and vice. According to accounts, written by the Roman historian Livy and the poet Ovid in the 1st century ad, Lucretia killed herself with a stab wound to the chest after being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the Etruscan king’s son. Her husband Collatinus, and her relative Brutus, avenged her violation and death by leading a revolt against the Etruscan monarchy. This ultimately led to the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 bc.
Label TextThis is one of three paintings of Lucretia by the Bolognese goldsmith-turned-painter Francia. The story of Lucretia was popular in Renaissance Italy as a moralising tale of virtue and vice. According to accounts, written by the Roman historian Livy and the poet Ovid in the 1st century ad, Lucretia killed herself with a stab wound to the chest after being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the Etruscan king’s son. Her husband Collatinus, and her relative Brutus, avenged her violation and death by leading a revolt against the Etruscan monarchy. This ultimately led to the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 bc.
