.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In this unpublished drawing, Guercino has depicted a powerful image of the Roman heroine Lucretia. According to tradition, Lucretia was the beautiful and virtuous wife of the nobleman Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. After being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the tyrannical Etruscan king of Rome, she obtained an oath of revenge against him from her father and her husband and then stabbed herself to death. This tragic event - traditionally dated 509 BCE - marks the foundation of the Roman Republic.
Guercino, like Guido Reni and other Bolognese painters of the time, frequently treated the subject of Lucretia in paintings and drawings, as it was a favorite theme for their patrons. In the Libro dei Conti (Guercino’s account book for the years 1629-1666), six different painted versions of Lucretia are mentioned (Il libro dei conti del Guercino 1629-1666, ed. B. Ghelfi, Bologna, 1997, nos. 8, 177, 185, 239, 314, and 428). None of the paintings known today, however, corresponds to the figure in this drawing (see N. Turner, Guercino e Lucrezia. Un dipinto inedito a Cento, exhib. cat., 2009). Here Lucretia is depicted full-length with great dynamism, her movement captured by rapid stokes of the pen. In another pen and ink drawing, now in the Minneapolis Institute of Art (inv. 2015.93.17; see D. Stone, Guercino Master Draftsman, Bologna, 1991, no. 232, ill.), the Roman heroine is depicted half-length less dramatically, but with elegant precision. The vibrant execution of the figure in the present sheet recalls the similarly animated representation of Mars brandishing a sword in a drawing recently on the art market (Christie’s, New York, 14-28 January 2022, lot 6).
Guercino, like Guido Reni and other Bolognese painters of the time, frequently treated the subject of Lucretia in paintings and drawings, as it was a favorite theme for their patrons. In the Libro dei Conti (Guercino’s account book for the years 1629-1666), six different painted versions of Lucretia are mentioned (Il libro dei conti del Guercino 1629-1666, ed. B. Ghelfi, Bologna, 1997, nos. 8, 177, 185, 239, 314, and 428). None of the paintings known today, however, corresponds to the figure in this drawing (see N. Turner, Guercino e Lucrezia. Un dipinto inedito a Cento, exhib. cat., 2009). Here Lucretia is depicted full-length with great dynamism, her movement captured by rapid stokes of the pen. In another pen and ink drawing, now in the Minneapolis Institute of Art (inv. 2015.93.17; see D. Stone, Guercino Master Draftsman, Bologna, 1991, no. 232, ill.), the Roman heroine is depicted half-length less dramatically, but with elegant precision. The vibrant execution of the figure in the present sheet recalls the similarly animated representation of Mars brandishing a sword in a drawing recently on the art market (Christie’s, New York, 14-28 January 2022, lot 6).