Suicide de Lucrèce · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture · Center for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Suicide de Lucrèce
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Collatia
Description: Lecretia is pictured in a blue gown with a knife stuck into her chest. She is committing suicide to punish herself for being victim of a horrible crime committed by Sextus. After seeing her amazing beauty and loyalty, he decided to rape her after blackmailing her. The morning after, Lucretia ran to her relatives and husband to tell them what Sextus had done to her. She said she could absolve herself from sin but not from punishment, so she killed herself with a knife hidden in her dress. In the image, her father, husband and relative who she sought to tell the truth, stand to the right.
Image Creator: Master of the Cleres Femmes of the Duke of Berry (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:20028
Language: fre
Source Name: Livre des Femmes Nobles et Renommées
Parent Collection: 1403 Paris; 1403 Paris
Image: mta_20028_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Rape; Honour; Punishment; Sin; Suicide