Lucrecia and her Husband

This material for painting derives from Ovid’s “Fasti” and was used by Titian several times: Lucrecia, wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, was raped by Sextus Tarquinius, son of the king. To save her honour as a woman and thus that of her husband, she stabs herself after demanding that her husband take revenge. By means of brush-work that is in part highly delicate and by paying great attention to the sensuality of the material, Titian succeeds in bringing to life the heroine’s moral greatness.