Lucrecia

Rembrandt painted this in 1664, in the hard last stretch of his life. He had gone bankrupt years before, his house and collection sold off, and Hendrickje Stoffels, the woman who had shared those years, had died in 1663. The subject is Lucretia, the Roman noblewoman who, after being raped, called her family together, told them what had happened, and killed herself in front of them. Rembrandt catches the instant before. She holds the dagger low in one hand and lifts the other, open, as if some part of her is still refusing. She is dressed like a queen in pearls and gold, and she looks down and away rather than at us. He would paint the same subject once more two years later. Here there is no blood yet, only the held breath before it.