Lucretia

The suicide of Lucretia is represented next to a donor’s coat of arms with scenes of the Creation of Eve and the Temptation in the Garden in the top left and right corners. The inscription below includes the name of the donor, Friolin Kleger, and the date 1561. Kleger was a deputy regional governor of the Gaster region in the canton of St Gallen, Switzerland. The story of Lucretia, a virtuous Roman wife who chose suicide over living in disgrace after being raped by a corrupt court official, was seen as heralding the founding of the ancient Roman Republic that rebelled against the tyranny of the king. Pairing the classical legend of Lucretia with the biblical scenes of Eve is likely indicative of Humanist thought addressing universal themes of virtue and vice. The Republican overtones (appropriate to the Swiss confederacy) and advocacy of moral rectitude no doubt carried a political message in relation to the patron, and the panel may have originally hung in a civic building such as a city hall. The figure of Lucretia derives directly from a print by Hans Sebald Beham (German, 1500-1550), and the upper left scene relates to a print The Creation of Eve by Hans Brosamer (German, about 1500-1552).