The Suicide of Lucretia

The Suicide of Lucretia

Title

The Suicide of Lucretia

[Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, revised 2014]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, revised 2014]

The painting depicts Lucretia as a standing three-quarter length figure in contemporary dress with a view of a landscape in the background.

Her face is inclined slightly to the right. In her right hand she holds a long dagger pointed towards herself and in her left hand she elegantly holds

The painting depicts Lucretia as a standing three-quarter length figure in contemporary dress with a view of a landscape in the background.

Her face is inclined slightly to the right. In her right hand she holds a long dagger pointed towards herself and in her left hand she elegantly holds her overcoat. This is red and trimmed with fur and is draped over her right shoulder. Under the overcoat she wears a precious gold and black robe with stepped sleeves and a white undergarment with puffed sleeves, which is open to reveal her chest. To complement the robe Lucretia wears precious jewellery: a choker and a neckband decorated with pearls. In addition her curls are pinned up beneath a bonnet.

The background is dark, but a window on the left indicates that Lucretia is standing in a room. A view of a mountainous landscape with a town and a castle is visible through the window.

According to the legend Lucretia lived in the 6th century BC and was the beautiful and virtuous wife of the roman Collatinus. The roman King's son - Sextus Tarquinius fell in love with her. During a stay in her house Sextus threatened to kill her and shame her honour if she did not surrender to him. After the rape Lucretia had her father and husband vow vengeance and then she stabbed herself. The event led to an uprising in which the royal family was overthrown and the Roman Empire became a Republic.

Depictions of Lucretia who was seen as the epitomy of female virtue, chastity, fidelity and honour enjoyed great popularity, particularly in the 16th century.

[Literature: Bierende 2002, Follak 2002, Livius 1909]

Attribution
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attribution

Lucas Cranach the Elder

[Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, revised 2014]
[Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, 117, No. 237]

Certificate by Max J. Friedländer, 5 August 1957, now lost.

Production date
1529

Production date

1529

[dated]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 75 x 54 cm (29 ' x 21 ' inches)

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 75 x 54 cm (29 ' x 21 ' inches)

  • [Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, revised 2014]

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia on the window ledge: serpent with elevated wings and dated '1529'

Signature / Dating

  • Artist's insignia on the window ledge: serpent with elevated wings and dated '1529'

  • [Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, revised 2014]

Owner
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Repository
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Location
Houston
CDA ID
US_MFAH-SCBFH-1979-2
FR (1978) Nr.
FR237
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/US_MFAH-SCBFH-1979-2/

Provenance

  • Fred R. Leyland Collection, Woolton Hall, Liverpool, 1892
  • Gallery Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York [1]
  • Winston Guest Collection, New York, 1960
  • purchased from Spencer A. Samuels and Company, New York, 1968
  • Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston

[1] According to a letter from Rosenberg dated May 27, 1957 in the Dieter Koepplin Archive, Rosenberg & Stiebel acquired the painting from a French private collection.
[Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, revised 2017]

Exhibitions

Royal Academy, London, 1882, no. 192.

A Golden Age of Painting: Dutch, Flemish, German Paintings, Sixteenth--Seventeenth Centuries from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, touring exhibition in the United States between 1980 and 1993.

The Museum of Art, Ehime, 13 April-30 May 1999
Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art, 5 June-11 July 1999
Mie Prefectural Art Museum, 17 July-22 August 1999
Fukuoka Art Museum, 28 August-3 October 1999, cat. no. 19

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 9 April-14 August 2005, cat. no. 2
National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan, 2016¿17, no. 62
National Museum, Osaka, Japan, 2017, no. 62

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Cat. Coburg 2018 100, fn. 4 under no. 17
AuthorKlaus Weschenfelder
TitleCranach in Coburg. Gemälde von Lucas Cranach d.Ä., Lucas Cranach d.J., der Werkstatt und des Umkreises in den Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg
Place of PublicationRegensburg
Year of Publication2018
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Tokyo 2016 166-167 062
EditorGuido Messling, Atsushi Shinfuji
TitleLucas Cranach the Elder. 500 Years of the power of Tempation. [National Museum of Western Art,Tokyo; National Museum, Osaka, Japan]
Place of PublicationTokyo
Year of Publication2016
Show Literature
Bücken 2010 58, 59 52
AuthorVeronique Bücken
TitleHeroinen und Femmes Fatales im Werk von Lucas Cranach
Publicationin Guido Messling, ed., Die Welt des Lucas Cranach. Ein Künstler im Zeitalter von Dürer, Tizian und Metsys, Exhib. Cat. Brussels
Place of PublicationBrussels
Year of Publication2010
Pages54-65
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Ithaca 2005 27-32 002 Fig. (also on the cover)
EditorAndrew C. Weislogel
TitleLucas Cranach's Judith and Lucretia: Fashioning Women in the Northern Renaissance [Ithaca, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University]
Place of PublicationNew York
Year of Publication2005
Show Literature
Cuneo 2003 26-43 Fig.
AuthorPia F. Cuneo
TitleJörg Breu the Elder's Death of Lucretia. History, Sexuality, and the State
Publicationin Jane L. Carrol, Alison G. Stewart, eds., Saints, Sinners, and Sisters. Gender and Northern Art in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
Place of PublicationBurlington/Vermont
Year of Publication2003
Pages26-43
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Ehime 1999 86-87 No. 19 Fig.
AuthorPeter C. Marzio, Edgar Peter Bowron, James Clifton, Heisaka Harada
TitleMasterpieces of European Painting from the Fourteenth to Twentieth Centuries from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation [Ehime, The Museum of Art; Chiba Prefectural Museum of Art; Mie PAM; Fukuoka Art Museum]
Place of Publication[Houston]
Year of Publication1999
Show Literature
Le Foll 1994 79-86
AuthorJoséphine Le Foll
TitleCranach Fétichiste
JournalBeaux Arts Magazine
Issue126 (September 1994)
Year of Publication1994
Pages79-86
Show Literature
Gregory 1985 1289 Fig.
AuthorClive Gregory
TitleCranach, The Artist at Work, Swiftest of Painters
JournalThe Great Artists. Their lives, works and inspiration
Place of PublicationLondon
Issuevol. 2, The Renaissance, part 41
Year of Publication1985
Show Literature
Wright 1981 60-61
AuthorChristopher Wright
TitleA Golden Age of Painting: Dutch, Flemish, German Paintings, Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation
Place of PublicationSan Antonio
Year of Publication1981
Show Literature
Wright 1980 176-183
AuthorChristopher Wright
TitleThe Dutch Masters, Paintings from the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Collection
Volume203
JournalConnoisseur
Issue817 (March 1980)
Year of Publication1980
Pages176-183
Show Literature
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979 117 No. 237
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
EditorG. Schwartz
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBasel, Boston, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1979
Show Literature
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1978 116
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
TitleThe Paintings of Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationNew York
Year of Publication1978
Show Literature
Graves 1960 227
AuthorAlgernon, F.S.A. Graves
TitleA Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912
VolumeI
Place of PublicationNew York
Year of Publication1960
Show Literature

Research History / Discussion

The Suicide of Lucretia depicts the virtuous wife of a Roman nobleman.

The morning after she was raped by the king's son, she told her father and husband what had happened, and then she fatally stabbed herself.

Her suicide enraged the people of Rome, who expelled the ruling family, laying the foundation for the establishment of a republic. Cranach and his workshop painted dozens of versions of Lucretia's story. This painting is believed to be one of the primary versions, because-unlike many of the others-inscribed on the ledge behind the figure of Lucretia are Cranach's insignia, and, most unusual, the date of the painting's execution.

[Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, revised 2014]

  • The Suicide of Lucretia, 1529

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