From my excellent trip to Berlin, I brought you the most beautiful piece of work I have seen in a long time… Look at the knife, the necklace, the transparent fabric… And there there is the look. What is that look saying? Ah, so much defiance… She will do it if you push her, you know? Then again, maybe she is playing up, putting you where she wants you to be, just like seducers do. THAT is the look of the seducer.
Lucas Cranach 1472-1553
Lucretia, 1533
37.3 x 23.9 cm
Gemäldegalerie
Posted in Blog,Seductive artworks,Seductive things
She did do it (after her rape by that Tarquin bastard) – but I love what you pointed out.
Augustine has a similar analysis in his City of God: Lucretia’s suicide was, just like Regulus’s return to the Carthaginians, a supreme act of defiance which epitomized the Roman spirit of pride and overcoming. That really is a wonderful way to depict Lucretia.
Btw, I hate to double post, but that’s a great observation concerning her seductiveness and possession of transparent fabric. I mean, what the heck is she wearing transparent fabric for!?!
What if it wasn’t a transparent fabric in itself… What if it was a transparent fabric disguised as a weapon, something to entice you, make you look and then strangle with? She could also turn that knife on the viewer very easily, couldn’t she? I must be in a sadistic mood today. I blame it on her defiant look, as you said…
[...] now, you must know my weakness for Cranach’s paintings, for his depictions of the seductiveness of the female body, his wonderful view on Eve. I am lucky. [...]
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