Lukrezia

Lucretia at the Kunsthistorisches Museum depicts the Roman noblewoman whose suicide after being violated by Tarquinius Sextus led to the overthrow of the Roman monarchy. This subject of noble feminine sacrifice was popular throughout the Baroque period. Guido Reni's refined classicism and ethereal beauty made him one of the most celebrated painters in Europe during his lifetime, his graceful idealized figures expressing a spirituality that appealed equally to Counter-Reformation piety and aristocratic aesthetic sensibility.

The dying Lucretia is rendered with Reni's characteristic pale luminosity, the dagger and bared breast creating a composition of tragic beauty. The smooth handling transforms violence into aesthetic contemplation.