Portrait de femme

Lorenzo Lotto painted this young Venetian woman around 1533, and one theory names her as Lucrezia Valier, married that same year into the Pesaro family whose collection later held the picture. She is dressed for a wedding, with a gold ring and a bridal pendant, and she holds up a small drawing of a very different woman. That figure is Lucretia, the ancient Roman wife who, in the old story, stabbed herself after being assaulted rather than live with the shame. On the table lies a scrap of paper with Lucretia's defiant Latin words. It is an unusual thing for a bride to point at, and Lotto lets her hold your eye while she does it. Beside her stands an empty chair, often read as the place of the husband who is not in the room.