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Your galleryTarquin and Lucretia
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Look for everything falling apart: the pillow in midair, the pearls slipping from her broken necklace and the carved bedpost toppling at lower left.
Roman historians told how Tarquin, the king’s son, raped Lucretia, a virtuous married woman, and how the crime led the people to drive out their king and found a republic around 510 BCE. Tintoretto chose the most violent moment of the story. He distorted anatomy and space for expressive effect and lit the scene with bright flashes of light.
Oil on canvas · 175 × 151.5 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · High Renaissance and Mannerism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Tarquin and Lucretia
- Artist
- Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti; Italian, 1518-1594)
- Date
- 1578–80
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 175 × 151.5 cm (68 7/8 × 59 5/8 in.); Framed: 203.9 × 181 × 8.3 cm (80 1/4 × 71 1/4 × 3 1/4 in.)
- Credit line
- Art Institute Purchase Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.