Lucretia

Lucretia was a Roman noblewoman who, raped by the son of the last king of Rome, took her own life. The revolt that followed drove out the kings and founded the Roman Republic. This large canvas holds her in the final moment, the dagger already turned inward, her figure lit hard against deep shadow in the manner of Caravaggio. It was painted in Naples in the early 1640s, where Artemisia Gentileschi had settled and worked alongside the local master Massimo Stanzione, sharing his warm golds and heavy drapery. That closeness is now a problem. The picture has long been given to Artemisia, yet some scholars and the museum itself lean toward Stanzione, and today it is catalogued under both names. Their hands ran so near each other here that no one can quite separate them.