Lucretia

In the early sixteenth century, painters across the Low Countries could hardly keep up with demand for one particular Roman heroine. Lucretia, the wife of a Roman nobleman, was famous for a terrible story: assaulted by the king's son, she called her family together, made them swear revenge, and then took her own life rather than live with the dishonour. Her death set off the revolt that ended the Roman monarchy and began the Republic. Renaissance collectors, steeped in classical history, wanted her on their walls as a model of virtue, and Coecke, like Dürer, Cranach and Joos van Cleve, supplied the demand. He shows her alone, half-length against a plain ground, holding the dagger, with no crowd and no palace to distract from the single moment of decision. Painted in oil on a small panel, it was an image for private contemplation rather than public display.