The Story of Lucretia

c. 1528

Pen and black ink, grey wash on blueish green paper

214 × 312 mm

Praun-, Esterházy collection

This is a preparatory drawing by Jörg Breu for his painting now in Munich, dated 1528. The picture was commissioned by William IV, the Wittelsbach duke of Bavaria, and his wife Jacobäa for the Munich Residence. It belonged to a cycle of probably sixteen history pictures, painted by eight different artists, depicting virtuous women and men. In this drawing, the story of Lucretia (Livy, Ab urbe condita, I, 57–59) is represented in five scenes. The narrative begins in the left background with the rape of Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius, son of the king of Rome, and continues in the foreground with Lucretia’s suicide in the presence of her husband, father and two male friends, and with the same group of men swearing vengeance by the lifeless body of Lucretia. The subsequent episodes of Lucretia’s story, namely her funeral and Brutus’s speech against the tyrannical king and his sons, which according to Livy led to a rebellion and ultimately to the foundation of the Roman Republic, can be seen in the background.