Lucretia
by SCOREL, Jan van, Oil on panel, 66 x 44 cm
This painting, showing the suicide of Lucretia, is on the back side of the Portrait of a Man. After rape by Sextus, son of Tarquin, king of Rome, the Roman matron preferred death to further dishonour, so she killed herself. Scorel turned to a much-used Marcantonio Raimondi engraving after Raphael as his source.