Lucresse femme de colatus · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Lucresse femme de colatus
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: This illumination depicts a woman named Lucretia stabbing herself with a long knife. There are three men in the background of the image watching Lucretia carry out this act. Boccaccio explains that a relative of Lucretia’s husband (Collatinus) had raped her during the night. This man’s name was Sextus, and he had been welcomed into Lucretia and Collatinus’ home as a guest before he committed this crime. Lucretia told her husband, her father (Tricipitinus) and a relative named Brutus what Sextus had done to her. These are presumably the three men illustrated in the background. After she told them what Sextus had done to her, she killed herself in shame of what happened.
Image Creator: Robinet Testard (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:18013
Language: frm
Source Name: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme [Boccaccio, The cleric and noble women, anonymous French translation]
Parent Collection: Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496); Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme. Illuminations by Robinet Testard (1488-1496)
Image: mta_18013_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Famous Women; Lucretia; Sextus; Collatinus; Rape; Chastity; Important Women