Tarquin and Lucretia

In 1571, the year Titian's finished Tarquin and Lucretia was ready to go to Philip II of Spain, the Dutch engraver Cornelis Cort published a print of it, and the composition was soon widely known. This canvas in Vienna is a variant of the same design, with many differences. The subject is the Roman legend of Sextus Tarquinius, the king's son, forcing himself on the noblewoman Lucretia at knifepoint. The raised dagger and the dark red curtain are here, but the two figures are pressed close and cut off by the edges, and the paint is so loose and open that the picture has often been called unfinished. The Academy of Fine Arts catalogues it as Titian's own work from about 1572 to 1576, the last years of his life. Some specialists agree. Others read its unsure anatomy as the hand of an assistant or an imitator. The Academy bought it from a Vienna art dealer in 1907.