Blog Deep Dive #2

 

• Lucretia by Rembrandt
• The curtains fall behind her, setting the scene for her show
• The blood on the shirt staining like a spilled bowl of cherries
• The tears are waterfalls of sadness pouring out of her eyes and down her face
• The knife cuts into her bashful body with unexpected eagerness
• Her decision pulled her down with the weight of the empire
• Her dress seemed to suffocate her with malicious intent
• The curtains creak as her body falls and she pulls them down with her

I watch Lucretia look around at her father and husband for one last moment, just to take them in. The curtains fall behind her, setting the scene for her show that we were the unwilling audience members of. She pulls to grab the curtain string to steady herself as her tears are drifting like waterfalls of despair down her face. I hear the shouts and gasps of her family as she raises the knife to her heart and plunges it towards her. The knife cuts into her bashful body with unexpected eagerness and the curtains creak as her body falls and she pulls them down with her.

Lucretia told her father and husband of Tarquinius' act and they deliberated eagerly about what to do. As they discussed her situation, Lucretia pulled a dagger from where she had hid it in her dress and drove it into her heart, falling and dying in their arms. Her decision to kill herself was driven by the Roman concept of a woman's purity being more valuable than her life. Her suicide drove the Roman people to rebel against the tyrants and caused the monarchy to collapse, once and for all.