The Suicide of Lucretia by Albrecht Dürer was created in 1518 and is in Alte Pinakothek München. The size of the work is 168 x 74 cm and is made of oil on wood.
About the Work
Sextus Tarquinius, the son of the king of Rome, raped Lucretia, the wife of the military commander Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus. After telling her husband and her father she took her own life (Livy, Ab urbe condita). With this work Dürer created both a monument to a woman who was worshipped as a ‘virtuous heroine’ and whose deed led to the end of the Roman monarchy and the beginning of the republic. Dürer did in fact have recourse to a drawing that shows Lucretia standing on a pedestal like a statue.