Roman Lucretia. Follower of Guido Redi. XVII- XVIII century.

Roman Lucretia.
Follower of Guido Redi.

XVII- XVIII century.

Oil painting on wooden panel.
The pose of the young Roman matron with eyes raised to the sky, with a suffering gaze is theatrically dramatic and takes up the models of the Bolognese and Roman schools, taken up by Guido Reni (1575 - 1642, Bologna).

Lucrezia wears seventeenth-century fashion jewels: earrings and pearl necklaces woven into her hair. Lucrezia was a Roman matron, daughter of Spurio Lucrezio Tricipitino and wife of L. Tarquinio Collatino: according to tradition, she would have aroused an insane passion for her beauty and moral merits in Sesto, son of the king of Rome, Tarquinio il Superbus . Tarquinius uses violence and blackmail against Lucrezia, who, to escape dishonor, commits suicide, thus provoking the indignation of the people who forced the king and his children into exile, and subsequently giving birth to the Roman republic.