ARARPI0253391
Painting The Suicide of Lucretia
Oil on canvas. On the back of the frame there is an autograph in pencil with the improper indication "Copy from Domenichino", and an undeciphered signature. It is actually a copy of the painting made by Simon Vouet (1590-1649) in 1624, and now preserved at the National Gallery in Prague. During his stay in Italy, Vouet looked a lot at the paintings of Domenichino and Guido Reni, who influenced him. The episode depicted tells of the suicide of Lucrezia, wife of the Roman nobleman Tarquinio Collatino who, kidnapped by Sesto Tarquinio, preferred death to dishonor. Vouet's canvas is of great pictorial and chromatic intensity, and is well captured here, the unknown author knowing how to highlight both the female figure in her dramatic movement and the richness of the furnishings and surrounding fabrics. The painting shows traces of restoration and a tear in the top center. It is presented in a golden frame from the early 1900s.