SCOREL, Jan van
(b. 1495, Schoorl, d. 1562, Utrecht)

Lucretia

c. 1535
Oil on panel, 66 x 44 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

This painting, showing the suicide of Lucretia, is on the back side of the Portrait of a Man. After rape by Sextus, son of Tarquin, king of Rome, the Roman matron preferred death to further dishonour, so she killed herself. Scorel turned to a much-used Marcantonio Raimondi engraving after Raphael as his source.