The Tragedy (Death, Suicide) of Lucretia | |
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The Botticelli Lucretia | |
![]() Central scene | |
Artist | Sandro Botticelli |
Year | 1496–1504 |
Medium | Tempera and oil on wood |
Dimensions | 83.8 cm× 176.8 cm(33.0 in× 69.6 in) |
Location | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston |
The Tragedy of Lucretia is a tempera and oil painting on a wood cassone or spalliera panel by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli, painted between 1496 and 1504. Known less formally as the Botticelli Lucretia, it is housed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum of Boston, Massachusetts, having been owned by Isabella Stewart Gardner in her lifetime.
The picture is a syncretion of scenes from different legendary themes in different time periods that Botticelli considered related. The topic is revolt against tyranny, a popular one in the volatile Italian republics. The main scene is given center foreground. It is the beginning of the revolution that created the Roman republic. The legend is that Lucretia, a noblewoman, was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the last king of Rome. As a result, Lucius Junius Brutus took an oath to expel the Tarquinii from Rome and never to allow anyone else to reign. In the centre of the picture Lucretia's corpse is on public display as a heroine. Brutus stands over her exhorting the populace to revolt and recruiting a revolutionary army of young men. There is much sword-waving. The dagger with which Lucretia killed herself is in evidence protruding from her breast. The statue at the top of the column behind Brutus in the foreground is David and Goliath's head, [1] which is not very suitable for vengeance, but does fit the political situation. David and Goliath were a symbol of revolt against tyranny in the Republic of Florence. Lucretia had called for vengeance, but Brutus had called for the ouster of monarchy, and the purpose of the assembly was to implement it.
The legendary funeral oration takes place in the Forum Romanum, but Botticelli makes no effort to represent that well-known place. The setting is a small town, which can be seen trailing into the countryside in the background; some speculate it may have been Collatia, but that place was hardly the scene of a national revolution. None of the buildings are classical Roman and even the triumphal arch in the background commemorating the triumph of the republic is unlike any other. Hilliard T. Goldfarb, author of The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A Companion Guide and History, instead suggests that it is a dramatic stage scene in which the players gesticulate theatrically, and also about Botticelli's intent to convey "a clear political message." [2] One does not, however, hire one of the greatest artists of the time to adorn the inside of a wedding chest or the back of a chair, even in a mansion, with clear political messages; presumably, the panel was meant for public display of some sort. Botticelli ten years later was to die in obscure and unappreciated poverty; nevertheless, he was recognized even then as a great master.
The scene on the right porch is the death of Lucretia. The frieze over the porch depicts Horatius Cocles, a warrior who defended Rome against the intervention of Lars Porsenna and the ousted last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. The scene on the left porch is the threatening of Lucretia by Sextus to extort her compliance. He rips away her cloak, threatening to plunge his sword into her. The frieze over it depicts Judith and Holofernes, a tyrant decapitated by her after offers of seduction in the Old Testament.
The use of architecture in this picture is parallel to that of Filippino Lippi, a pupil of Sandro's, the son of Sandro's teacher.
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning 25 years until the popular uprising that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic. He is commonly known as Tarquin the Proud, from his cognomen Superbus.
According to Roman tradition, Lucretia, anglicized as Lucrece, was a noblewoman in ancient Rome, whose rape by Sextus Tarquinius (Tarquin) and subsequent suicide precipitated a rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy and led to the transition of Roman government from a kingdom to a republic. The incident kindled the flames of dissatisfaction over the tyrannical methods of Tarquin's father, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome. As a result, the prominent families instituted a republic, drove the extensive royal family of Tarquin from Rome, and successfully defended the republic against attempted Etruscan and Latin intervention.
Lucius Junius Brutus was the semi-legendary founder of the Roman Republic, and traditionally one of its first consuls in 509 BC. He was reputedly responsible for the expulsion of his uncle the Roman king Tarquinius Superbus after the suicide of Lucretia, which led to the overthrow of the Roman monarchy. He was involved in the abdication of fellow consul Tarquinius Collatinus, and executed two of his sons for plotting the restoration of the Tarquins.
Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants". In contemporary parlance, it means tyrannical leaders will inevitably be overthrown.
The Rape of Lucrece (1594) is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Roman noblewoman Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis (1593), Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to compose a "graver labour". Accordingly, The Rape of Lucrece has a serious tone throughout.
Publius Valerius Poplicola or Publicola was one of four Roman aristocrats who led the overthrow of the monarchy, and became a Roman consul, the colleague of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, traditionally considered the first year of the Roman Republic.
The gens Tarquinia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, usually associated with Lucius Tarquinius Priscus and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the fifth and seventh Kings of Rome. Most of the Tarquinii who appear in history are connected in some way with this dynasty, but a few appear during the later Republic, and others from inscriptions, some dating as late as the fourth century AD.
Demaratus, frequently called Demaratus of Corinth, was the father of Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth King of Rome, and the grandfather or great-grandfather of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh and last Roman king.
Sextus Tarquinius was one of the sons of the last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. In the original account of the Tarquin dynasty presented by Fabius Pictor, he is the second son, between Titus and Arruns. However, according to Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, he was either the third or first son, respectively. According to Roman tradition, his rape of Lucretia was the precipitating event in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Roman Republic.
Lucius Tarquinius Ar. f. Ar. n. Collatinus was one of the first two consuls of the Roman Republic in 509 BC, together with Lucius Junius Brutus. The two men had led the revolution which overthrew the Roman monarchy. He was forced to resign his office and go into exile as a result of the hatred he had helped engender in the people against the former ruling house.
Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus is a semi-legendary figure in early Roman history. He was the first Suffect Consul of Rome and was also the father of Lucretia, whose rape by Sextus Tarquinius, followed by her suicide, resulted in the dethronement of King Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, therefore directly precipitating the founding of the Roman Republic. It is believed that Lucretius and his accomplishments are at least partly mythical and most ancient references to him were penned by Livy and Plutarch.
The gens Lucretia was a prominent family of the Roman Republic. Originally patrician, the gens later included a number of plebeian families. The Lucretii were one of the most ancient gentes, and the second wife of Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome, was named Lucretia. The first of the Lucretii to obtain the consulship was Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus in 509 BC, the first year of the Republic.
Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami is an oil painting by Italian artist Raphael. Painted ca. 1509, it exists in two copies, one of which is in display in the Palatina Gallery of Palazzo Pitti in Florence and the other in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Known for its realism and attention to detail, the image is reminiscent of works by Hans Holbein the Elder, by whom Raphael may have been influenced in its execution. Stylistically, it relates to Raphael's Portrait of Agnolo Doni, ca.1506, in what Claudio Strinati described in 1998 as its "merciless clarity."
The Tarquinian conspiracy was a conspiracy amongst a number of senators and leading men of ancient Rome in 509 BC to reinstate the monarchy, and to put Lucius Tarquinius Superbus back on the throne. The conspirators were discovered and executed. The story is part of Rome's early semi-legendary history.
The Temptations of Christ is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, executed in 1480–1482 and located in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.
Tarquin and Lucretia is an oil painting by Titian completed in 1571, when the artist was in his eighties, for Philip II of Spain. It is signed, and considered to have been finished entirely by Titian himself. It is one of a series of great works from Titian's last years, but unlike some of these, is fully finished. It is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England.
The overthrow of the Roman monarchy was an event in ancient Rome that took place between the 6th and 5th centuries BC where a political revolution replaced the then-existing Roman monarchy under Lucius Tarquinius Superbus with a republic. The details of the event were largely forgotten by the Romans a few centuries later; later Roman historians invented a narrative of the events, traditionally dated to c. 509 BC, but this narrative is largely believed to be fictitious by modern scholars.
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