Lucretia
Caspar Netscher(Prague or Heidelberg ca. 1639 – 1684 TheHague)ca. 1665–67
oil on panel
28.8 x 24.3 cm
CN-109© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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How to cite
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Lucretia” (2017). In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 3rd ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.
and Lara Yeager-Crasselt. New York, 2020–23. https://www.theleidencollection.com/archive/ (archived December 2023).
A PDF of every version of this entry is available in this Online Catalogue's Archive, and the Archive is managed by apermanent URL. New versions are added only when a substantive change to the narrative occurs.

The story of the Roman heroine Lucretia is recounted by Livy.[1] The beautiful wife

Comparative Figuresof Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, a Roman nobleman of the sixth century B.C.,
Lucretia was renowned for her virtue and loyalty. She was raped by Sextus
Tarquinius, son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the tyrannical Etruscan king ofRome. Lucretia revealed the defilement before her father, husband, and other male
relatives and then—to preserve her honor and the good name of herfamily—committed suicide by stabbing herself in the breast. To avenge the rape, oneof Lucretia’s kinsman, Lucius Junius Brutus, led a revolt to overthrow the monarchy.
Brutus and Lucretia’s bereaved husband, Collatinus, subsequently became the first
consuls of the Roman Republic.
Lucretia’s tragic and emotionally complex story came to exemplify an equallycomplex array of abstract concepts: patriotism and the victory of liberty over tyranny;love and faithfulness unto death; and virtuous female chastity most of all. Historical
reaction to the Roman heroine was not consistently positive, however, and early
Christian writers tended to condemn her for choosing the mortal sin of suicide overFig 1. Lucas Cranach, Lucretia, 1533,
oil on panel, 37 x 24 cm, Staatliche
Museen, Berlin, Inv. No. 1832

the lesser evil of adultery. Nonetheless, the story of a woman who chose death overdishonor was steadily popular in a culture that placed such great emphasis on female
chastity.[2] Representations of Lucretia’s suicide abounded in early sixteenth-century
paintings and prints, especially among Northern European artists: Albrecht Dürer,Lucas Cranach, Hans Baldung, Jan van Scorel, Joos van Cleve, Jan Gossaert, andPieter Coecke van Aelst were among the many that depicted the theme. The majorityof these images removed Lucretia from a narrative context and isolated her figure
against a neutral background, thus promoting a greater sense of intimacy between thefigure and the viewer (fig 1). Although Livy and other classical authors described
Lucretia as “modestly clothed,” most of these images show her either partially clad or© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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completely nude, perhaps prompted by the recent discovery in Rome of an antique
statue of a nude woman believed to represent Lucretia.[3]The isolation of the figure and the exclusion of narrative context in these images havebeen linked to the conventions of Christian devotional imagery, which employedsimilar formal strategies to focus the viewer’s meditations on the sufferings of Christor the particular saint depicted, and thus encourage empathetic response.[4] Adopting
these conventions was only logical, as Lucretia herself was often regarded as a sort ofsecular martyr. Unquestionably, however, the voyeuristic appeal of intimate
engagement with a (semi)nude woman—no matter how noble or virtuous—and theillicit eroticism of Lucretia’s rape were the key factors in the continued popularity ofthe theme.
It is not surprising that Caspar Netscher chose the story of Lucretia for what wasprobably his first attempt at a historical subject. Although Gary Schwartz and others

Fig 2. Guido Reni, Lucretia, ca. 1625,
oil on canvas, 215 x 151 cm, Staatliche
Schlösser und Gärten, Neues Palais,
Potsdam-Sanssouci, inv. GK I 5388

have convincingly proposed that Rembrandt’s intensely charged Lucretia paintings of1664 and 1666 might have been inspired by contemporary political events and theconcomitant parallels drawn between the foundation of the Roman and Dutch
Republics,[5] it is not at all clear that Netscher intended his painting, made during thissame period, to embody similar associations. Like many genre painters who also
turned their hand to painting small-scale history pieces during the 1660s and 1670s(FM-103), he chose a well-known subject that lent itself to a genre-like approach interms of clothing, setting and accessories, and that afforded an opportunity to depict a
voluptuous semi-clad figure under a cloak of historical respectability.[6] Here, posed
before a curtained bed in a darkened interior, Lucretia bares her breast to receive thedagger’s thrust, her tear-filled eyes rolled heavenwards. In general terms, Netscher’sdecision to isolate the figure before a barely visible background recalls the sensuous
Lucretias created by sixteenth-century Northern artists, but the sharp turn of theFig 3. Caspar Netscher, Woman at Her
Toilet, ca. 1665, oil on panel, 42.5 x 33
cm, Private Collection, London,courtesy Johnny Van Haeften Ltd.

figure’s head and her pathetic upward gaze seem to have been more directly inspiredby Guido Reni’s numerous depictions of Lucretia and the equally tragic Cleopatra (fig 2).[7] In both instances, the artist has deliberately eliminated any possibility of eye
contact between figure and viewer, allowing the viewer to intrude freely upon anintensely private scene. In analyzing the voyeuristic appeal of Reni’s paintings
specifically, Richard Spear has noted that the eroticism of his Lucretias “derives lessfrom nakedness than from their vulnerability and the violation done to them: from thepending plunge of a cold, sharp dagger into pale unblemished flesh.”[8] The samemight be said of Netscher’s Lucretia as well.
Lucretia, which is in good condition, was probably painted about 1665–67.[9] Thesame model appears in Netscher’s genre paintings of the mid-1660s (fig 3), many ofwhich project a similar sensual and sensorial appeal. In these works, Netscher often© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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combined discreet glimpses into private domestic worlds with a detailed attention to
the tactile surfaces of fabric and flesh (see also CN-108). Were it not for Lucretia’s
artfully disheveled garments and the slim dagger clutched in her outstretched hand,she could easily be mistaken for one of these pampered seventeenth-century beauties.
By limiting accessories to a generous swag of green drapery and a pillow hinting at
the presence of a bed in the right background, Netscher avoids tying hisrepresentation to a specific time and place. Some have faulted Netscher’s history
paintings for lacking a certain dignified historicism; the nineteenth-century critic
Charles Blanc, for example, remarked, “the notion of the antique, the sublime
conventions which form the ideal in art, were too elevated for his spirit. . . . [He] did
not forego [using] some pretty Hague lady as the model for his Cleopatra, orCleopatra herself as the pretext for a beautiful satin robe.”[10] Nevertheless, the very
contemporaneity of Netscher’s Lucretia is what contributes most significantly to her
sensual appeal.

- Marjorie E. Wieseman, 2017

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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Page 5 of 8Endnotes
1. Livy (Titus Livius), The Early History of Rome, trans. Aubrey de Sélincourt (London, 1960), 98–99. The
story is also told by Ovid (Fasti II: 721–853); see Ian Donaldson, The Rapes of Lucretia: A Myth and Its
Transformations (Oxford, 1982), 5–8.
2. Carol Schuler, “Virtuous Model/Voluptuous Martyr: The Suicide of Lucretia in Northern Renaissance
Art and Its Relationship to Late Medieval Devotional Imagery,” in Saints, Sinners and Sisters: Genderand Northern Art in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Jane L. Carroll and Alison G. Stewart(Aldershot, 2003), 7–25.
3. Wolfgang Stechow, “Lucretia Statua,” in Essays in Honor of Georg Swarzenski, ed. Oswald Goetz(Chicago, 1951), 114–24. Another, more emotionally charged and less overtly erotic tradition exists indepictions of the theme by Titian and other Venetian painters, culminating in Rembrandt’s remarkable
and intensely moving late paintings of Lucretia from 1664 (National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.)
and 1666 (Minneapolis Institute of Art).
4. Carol Schuler, “Virtuous Model/Voluptuous Martyr: The Suicide of Lucretia in Northern Renaissance
Art and Its Relationship to Late Medieval Devotional Imagery,” in Saints, Sinners and Sisters: Genderand Northern Art in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Jane L. Carroll and Alison G. Stewart(Aldershot, 2003), 7–25.
5. Gary Schwartz, Rembrandt: His Life, His Paintings (New York, 1985), 330; see also Arthur K. Wheelock
Jr., The Collection of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogues: Dutch Paintings of theSeventeenth Century (Washington, D.C., 1995), 283.
6. Marjorie E. Wieseman, Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting (Doornspijk,2002), 75–77; on the blurring of the distinction between genre and history, see especially Lyckle deVries, “Jan Steen zwischen Genre- und Historienmalerei,” Niederdeutsch Beitragen zur Kunstgeschichte
22 (1982): 113–28.
7. Reni’s depictions of Cleopatra and Lucretia were exceedingly popular throughout Europe, and a numberof contemporary copies survive, as well as engravings after the compositions. A Lucretia by Reni was in
the sale Johan Cau, Lord of Domberg, Amsterdam, 7 May 1710; see Gerard Hoet, Catalogus ofnaamlyst van schilderyen, met derzelver pryzen, zedert een langen reeks van jaaren zoo, 3 vols. (TheHague, 1752), 1 :137.
8. Richard E. Spear, The “Divine” Guido: Religion, Sex, Money, and Art in the World of Guido Reni (NewHaven, 1997), 85.
9. From at least 1953 until 1999, when it was cleaned and restored, the painting was attributed to Jacob
Ochtervelt on the basis of a false signature and date (J. Ochtervelt / 1676) at center left. See SusanDonahue Kuretsky, The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt, 1634–1682: With Catalog Raisonné (Montclair,1979), 27–28, 91, no. 91.
© 2024 The Leiden Collection

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10. Charles Blanc, Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles, vol. 11, École Hollandaise (Paris, 1863), 8: “Lesnotions de l’antique, les sublimes conventions dont se compose l’idéal de l’art, étaient trop au-dessus deson esprit et lui demeurent inconnues. . . . [Il] n’a pas manqué quelque jolie femme de La Haye pour lemodèle de sa Cléopâtre, et sa Cléopâtre elle-même pour le prétexte d’une belle robe de satin.”

ProvenanceThomas François Joseph, Count de Fraula (1647–1738), Brussels (his sale, Brussels, 21 July 1738, no.
71 [for 105 florins]).[1]Possibly Christian Josi (1768–1828) (his sale, Christie’s, London, 26 February 1796, no. 85 [to Thomas
Chippendale Jr. for £2.15]).[2]Admiral Algernon Walker-Heneage-Vivian (1871–1952), Clyne Castle, Blackpill, Wales (his sale,Sotheby’s, London, 3 December 1952, no. 104, as Jacob Ochtervelt [to Dent]).
Leander McCormick-Goodhart, Alexandria, Va., by 1954; by descent until 1999 (sale, Christies,London, 9 July 1999, no. 166, as Jacob Ochtervelt [to Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., London, and OttoNaumann, Ltd., New York]).
[Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., London, and Otto Naumann, Ltd., New York].
From whom acquired by present owner in 2004.

Provenance Notes

1. Frans van Mieris’s Death of Lucretia, now in The Leiden Collection, was also sold in the Count of
Fraula’s sale (no. 245).
2. The present painting may also have been in one or both of the following sales, in both cases as by“Mieris” and as the property of Thomas Chippendale Jr.: sale, Christie’s, London, 18 November 1797,lot 33 (for £1.11); and sale, Christie’s, London, 22 December 1798, lot 46 (to Welch[?], for £1.16).
Thomas Chippendale Jr., son of the famous furniture maker, was also an artist and occasional dealer inpictures.

Exhibition History
Amsterdam, Hermitage Amsterdam, “Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: History Paintings from The
Leiden Collection,” 4 February–27 August 2023, no. 17 [lent by the present owner].

© 2024 The Leiden Collection

Lucretia
Page 7 of 8References
Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters ofthe Seventeenth Century Based on the Work of John Smith. Edited and translated by Edward G. Hawke.
London, 1913, 5: 161, no. 38a.
Kuretsky, Susan. The Paintings of Jacob Ochtervelt, 1634–1682: with Catalog Raisonné. Montclair, 1979,
27–28, 91, no. 91, fig. 102. (as by Jacob Ochtervelt)
Hecht, Peter, ed. De Hollandse fijnschilders: van Gerard Dou tot Adriaen van der Werff. Exh. cat.
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam, 1989, 176, no. 1.
Wieseman, Marjorie E. “Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting.” PhD diss.
Columbia University, 1991, 321–22, no. 45.
Jansen, Guido. “Caspar Netscher.” In The Grove Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner, 22: 916. NewYork, 2000.
Wieseman, Marjorie E. Caspar Netscher and Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting. Doornspijk,
2002, 78–79, 84, 198–99, no. 47, fig. 47.
Wuestman, Gerdien. “C. H. van Meurs and his fijnschilder prints: a mysterious printmaker with aforgotten oeuvre.” Simiolus 37, no. 2 (2013–14): 125n28, 136.
Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., Christiaan Vogelaar, and Caroline van Cauwenberge. Rembrandt and His
Contemporaries: History Paintings from The Leiden Collection. Exh. cat. Amsterdam, Hermitage
Amsterdam. Zwolle, 2023, 80–83, no. 17. [Exhibition catalogue also published in Dutch.]

Versions
Versions
1. After Caspar Netscher, Lucretia, oil on panel, 35.5 x 26.5 cm, Peter Hecht, Utrecht.
2. After Caspar Netscher, The History of Lucretia, oil on panel, approx. 38.1 x 45.7 cm, previous sale,Lienau, Hamburg, 13–14 April 1790, no. 248.

3. Circle of Jacob Ochtervelt, Lucretia, oil on panel, 30.5 x 25 cm, previous sale, Sotheby’s, London, 2011.
4. After Caspar Netscher, Lucretia, oil on panel, 29.2 x 25.4 cm, previous sale, Duncan Macalester Loup etal., Bosboom, The Hague, 20 August 1806, no. 193.

5. Variant copy by Toussaint Gelton, Lucretia, 1671, panel, Ham House, Surrey (National Trust).

Print
1. Cornelis Henricus van Meurs (b. 1680), after Caspar Netscher, Lucretia, engraving, 282 x 250 mm.[1]© 2024 The Leiden CollectionPowered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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Versions Notes1. Cornelis Henricus van Meurs also engraved the following paintings in The Leiden Collection: Frans vanMieris, Woman Reading and a Man Seated at a Table, probably 1676; Frans van Mieris, Death ofLucretia, 1679; and Gerrit Dou, A Young Woman Playing a Clavichord, ca. 1665.

Technical Summary
The support, a single plank of vertically grained, rectangular oak, has bevels on all four sides.[1] The panel isunthinned and uncradled and has machine tool marks and three red wax seals but no import stamps or panel
maker’s marks.
A red-brown ground has been thinly and evenly applied followed by a blue-gray layer. The paint has been
thinly and smoothly applied with no use of impasto but with low brush markings along the swags of drapery,
garment folds, and dagger contours.
No underdrawing is readily apparent in infrared images captured at 780–1000 nanometers, and nocompositional changes are noted aside from slight shifts in the position of Lucretia’s proper left pinky andthe contour of her proper right thumb.
The painting is unsigned and undated. A false Jacob Ochtervelt signature and 1676 date were removed duringa past conservation treatment.[2]The painting was cleaned and restored in 1999 prior to its acquisition in 2005. The painting remains in agood state of preservation.

Technical Summary Endnotes

1. The characterization of the wood is based on visual examination only.
2. According to documents provided by Sara Smith, collections manager, The Leiden Collection. Therestorer is not named, and this painting is not included on the list of paintings restored for the Gallery byNancy Krieg in New York.

© 2024 The Leiden Collection