Lucretia; Rembrandt (1664)

The painting I chose was the Lucretia painting by Rembrandt in the year 1664 CE. This particular painting of Lucretia was my first introduction to the story of Lucretia. With this perspective I can say with ease that the painting tells the story with perfect elegance. By the way she holds the knife one can see tension and fear which elicits the reaction of intrepidness and terror. The specific story behind the painting goes far beyond the historical narrative. Rembrandt was unable to marry the love of his life Hendrickje Stoffels due to a specific stipulation in his divorce with his previous life. Despite that he loved Hendrickje and lived with her and used her as a model for a number of works. The particular use of Lucretia speaks to the fact that Hendrickje was ostracized due to his ex -wife Saskia and her particular lineage and perceptions of her lifestyle. The nature of the Lucretia, being thus informed, Shows a severe and unrelenting beauty. Lucretia above all else was heralded as the perfect Roman woman. In the painting she is a moment from seizing back her own dignity. The story of the painting is such that it manages to perfectly blend the story of Hendrickje and Lucretia. She engages in a disassociation in a way that serves to give dignity back to her own position. There exists a partner piece to this painting which was attributed two years later. By 1664 when the first of the two Lucretia paintings was released Hendrickje had already passed. In 1666 Rembrandt released and finished another painting of Hendrickje in the Role of Lucretia but in this painting, she has finished committing suicide. Thus, Rembrandt commissioned into the perpetual memory of history both Hendrickje and the story of Lucretia. The nature of Hendrickje was such that society had rejected her and then she died of sickness a few years later. This can be drawn into comparison with the story of Lucretia and Rembrandt seems to show a level of prescience. Given the subject and that he started the painting a year before the death of Hendrickje Rembrandt seems to convey a message that society had robbed Hendrickje of her dignity. Much in the same vein Lucretia took her own life because society had denied her the dignity she so deserved, and the raping of her image was sacrilegious. Thus, this painting becomes the perfect representations of both stories.