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A woman struggles against a man who grips her shoulder to push her back onto a canopied bed in this vertical painting. Both people have pale skin. Bright light coming from our left illuminates the pair and the bed, while the area beyond is in deep shadow, creating a black background. To our left, the man faces the woman so we see him in profile facing our right, though much of his face is in shadow. He wears a silver breastplate over a white and gold tunic, which has a lion’s face on the sleeve facing us. His thin, gold crown blends into his chestnut-brown hair and a golden-yellow cape slips off his shoulders. He raises his right index finger to his lips as he thrusts his right leg between the woman’s legs, as if striding toward her. The woman’s torso twists away from the man, toward us, and she braces her left hand, to our right, against the bed. She stretches her other arm up to the man’s forehead, her fingers grasping at his hair and coronet. Her face and honey-brown eyes turn up, and her pale pink lips are parted. Her slate-blue gown is torn at the neckline, exposing part of her left breast. Her blond hair is pulled back behind her neck, and dots of pale yellow suggest flower petals or jewels around her temples. The twisting, copper-brown curtains of the bed frame the scene and pool around a gilded, carved horse that decorates the corner of the bedstead, in the lower right corner of the painting. A partly unsheathed sword and a white flower with torn petals lie on the floor near the sandaled feet of the man and woman.

Giuseppe Maria Crespi

Tarquin and Lucretia, c. 1695/1700

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 30

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 195 x 171.5 cm (76 3/4 x 67 1/2 in.)

framed: 222.9 x 201.9 x 14.3 cm (87 3/4 x 79 1/2 x 5 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1952.5.30

Artists / Makers

Giuseppe Maria Crespi (artist) Bolognese, 1665 - 1747

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Overview

An historical tale told by Livy, Ovid, and even Shakespeare is the rape of Lucretia. Sextus Tarquinius, son of the Etruscan King of Rome, forced the Roman matron to submit to his advances by threatening to kill her and, then, to make it seem that she had been caught in adultery. Afterward, Lucretia told her family of this outrage and took her own life. Her family avenged her honor by overthrowing the tyrannical king, an act which led to the establishment of the Roman republic. Lucretia, as an exemplar of feminine virtue and Roman stoicism, was a favorite subject for baroque painters who reveled in depicting the extreme passion and violence of the story.

If Crespi's subject is classical, his style is decidedly not. He shows Sextus Tarquinius as he rushes in and forces himself on Lucretia, in his haste entangling himself in the rustling silk curtains of Lucretia's bed. The rough-looking villain has dropped his dagger and now remonstrates with Lucretia to cease her futile protest. Crespi's brush moved with great speed, and he made dramatic use of light, contrasting the luminous face of virtuous Lucretia with the sinister, shadowed profile of her attacker. Even the carved horse of Lucretia's bed comes alive, stirred by the violent episode.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/italian-paintings-17th-and-18th-centuries.pdf

Provenance

Possibly Palazzo Barbazza, Bologna, by 1739 until at least the 1760s.[1] Probably Duke Albert von Sachsen-Teschen [1738 1822], Bratislava, Brussels, and Vienna, by 1768 [as by Mattia Preti].[2] (Guillaume Verbelen, Brussels); (his sale, Brussels, 8 October 1833, no. 148, as Mattia Preti). J.J. Chapuis [d. 1865], Brussels; (his sale, De Donker and Vergote, Brussels, 4 December 1865 and days following, no. 320, as by Mattia Preti).[3] (M.A. Almas, Paris, 1937).[4] (Le Bouheler, Paris); purchased 1938 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1952 to NGA.

[1] Giampietro Zanotti, Storia dell'Accademia Clementina di Bologna, 2 vols., Bologna, 1739: 2:58; Marcello Oretti, "Le pitture...della Città di Bologna", 3 vols., Biblioteca Comunale, Bologna, MS B104, in Marcello Oretti e il patrimonio artistico privato bolognese. (Documenti 22), edited by Emilia Calbi and Daniela Scaglietti Kelescian, Bologna, 1984: 87.

[2] According to the Verbelen and Chapuis sale catalogues. Albert's drawing of the pendant listed in those catalogues as also from his collection, Ulysses Abducting Andromache's Son Astyanax, is dated 1768 and bears an inscription attributing the painting to Mattia Preti. This drawing was engraved in 1778 by Jacob Schmuzer: 200 Jahre Albertina: Herzog Albert von Sachsen-Teschen und seine Kunstsammlung, Exh. cat. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, 2 vols., Vienna, 1969: 1:nos. 76-77.

The Hecuba Blinding Polymnestor in the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, often suggested as a pendant to the NGA Lucretia, also came from Albert von Sachsen-Teschen's collection according to Eduard Fétis, Catalogue descriptif et historique du Musée Royal de Belgique, Brussels, 1864: 370. Fétis stated that the painting, acquired by the museum in 1828, was sold at the public sale of Albert's collection along with two other works by Preti bought by a Brussels collector, presumably the Ulysses and Lucretia in Verbelen's sale. No catalogue of Albert's sale has been located. (The reference to Fétis was provided by H. Pauwels, Conservateur en chef of the Musées Royaux, letter of 14 May 1985, NGA curatorial files.)

[3] The description of the Lucretia in the Chapuis sale catalogue corresponds exactly to the NGA painting; the dimensions given (190 x 194 cm) are somewhat wider, but the NGA painting has been cut down on both sides.

[4] Paul Fierens, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts (letter of 3 December 1948, NGA curatorial files), refers to a note in the files of the Musées Royaux indicating that a Tarquin and Lucretia measuring 195 x 172 cm was offered for sale in 1937 by M.A. Almas, Paris, who considered it the pendant to the Brussels Hecuba.

[5] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XVI-SVIII Century, London, 1973: 101; and Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:146. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2031.

Associated Names

Almas, M.A.
Chapuis, J.J.
De Donker and Vergote
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Le Bouheler
Palazzo Barbazza
Sachsen-Teschen, Albert von, Duke
Verbelen, Guillaume

Exhibition History

1940: Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, 1940, no. 25, repro. 22, as Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1941: Exhibition of Italian Baroque Painting, 17th and 18th Centuries, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1941, no. 24, repro. 55.

1944: Three Baroque Masters: Strozzi, Crespi, Piazetta, City Art Museum, St. Louis; Baltimore Museum of Art, 1944, no. 22.

1946: Recent Additions to the Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 842.

1986: Giuseppe Maria Crespi and the Emergence of Genre Painting in Italy, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1986, no. 2, color repro.

1990: Giuseppe Maria Crespi 1665-1747, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 1990-1991, no. 14, color repro. (shown ownly in Stuttgart).

Technical Summary

The support is a coarse, twill-weave fabric prepared with a white ground and a red-brown imprimatura. The image was blocked out using white and very dark brown paint, and then executed with fast brushwork in sweeps and dabs. X-radiographs show that Lucretia's head was raised, and the position of her mouth was changed. The curtain was also raised to follow the form of the bed. The entwined limbs were executed as follows: Tarquin's right side and head were sketched in, then the figure-eight loop was completed by adding Lucretia's right arm, and finally Tarquin's left hand was painted over Lucretia's completed shoulder.

The original dimensions of the painting have been significantly altered. The tacking margins have been removed on all sides. In x-radiographs distinct cusping is visible only at the top, suggesting that the painting was cut down at the left, right, and bottom. A strip measuring 31.8 cm was added at the top early in the painting's history, judging from its condition. The strip was painted to match the original composition, but its colors have not aged in the same way. Alterations in the pigments of the main composition have changed its tonal balance and color; the reds have faded and the increased transparency in the darks has led to a loss of definition in the shadows. There are numerous small tears and losses of ground and paint. Areas of darkened overpaint are present throughout. The painting was relined, discolored varnish was removed, and the painting was restored by Stephen Pichetto about 1940.

Bibliography

1941: Howe, Thomas Carr. "Variety in the Work of Giuseppe Maria Crespi." Pacific Art Review 1 (1941): 3, fig. 1.

1945: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 137, repro., as Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 235, repro., as Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1965: Matteucci, Anna. Giuseppe Maria Crespi. (I maestri del colore 92.) Milan, 1965: 3, 7, no. 3, color pl. 3.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 34, as Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 28, repro., as Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1973: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 101-102, fig. 183.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 88, repro., Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1977: Roli, Renato. Pittura bolognese 1650-1800. Dal Cignani ai Gandolfi. Bologna, 1977: 106, 251, fig. 162d.

1979: Riccòmini, Eugenio. In L'Arte del settecento emiliano: La pittura. L'Accademia Clementina. Exh. cat. Palazzo del Podestà e del Re Enzo. Bologna, 1979: 17.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:146-147; 2:pl. 103, as Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 81, pl. 68.

1980: Merriman, Mira Pajes. Giuseppe Maria Crespi. Milan, 1980: 74, 284, no. 177, fig. 177.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 344, no. 467, color repro., as Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 106, repro., as Lucretia Threatened by Tarquin.

1986: Spike, John. Giuseppe Maria Crespi and the Emergence of Genre Painting in Italy. Exh. cat. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1986: 29.

1989: Roli, Renato. "La pittura del secondo seicento in Emilia." In La pittura in Italia. Edited by Mina Gregori and Erich Schleier. 2 vols. Rev. edition. Milan, 1989: 1:265.

1990: Burkarth, Axel. "Giuseppe Maria Crespi nelle collezioni dell'aristocrazia austriaca e tedesca." Accademia Clementina Atti e memorie n.s. 26 (1990): 269-270, 273.

1990: Mazza, Angelo. "I 'turgidi floridi affreschi' in Palazzo Pepoli." In Giuseppe Maria Crespi 1665-1747. Exh. cat. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Bologna and Stuttgart, 1990: CCIX.

1990: Spike, John. "Giuseppe Maria Crespi e l'emergere della pittura di genere in Italia." In Accademia Clementina n.s. 26 (1990): 100.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 112, repro.

1996: De Grazia, Diane, and Eric Garberson, with Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter M. Lukehart, and Mitchell Merling. Italian Paintings of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 71-76, color repro. 73.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 165, no. 126, color repro.