Lucretia and Tarquin (Italian: Lucrezia e Tarquinio) is a 1663 oil painting by Luca Giordano of the legendary rape of Lucretia by Sextus Tarquin, as told by Livy and Ovid,[1] which is now in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples (Inv. Q 1678).[2]
The picture was part of the 1862 bequest of Alfonso d'Avalos, 13th Marquis of Vasto (1796–1862), who left his family art collection to the National Museum of Naples.[2] This or a very similar picture was apparently once in the Dresden Gallery,[3][clarification needed] and was engraved as such by Pieter Tanjé.[4][5]
A blonde Lucretia, nude, upon a couch or bed, her back to the viewer; Tarquin has one hand upon her shoulder, and points with the other to a black servant beyond.[4] The canvas is signed and dated 1663 and measures 160 x 83 cm.[2]
There is a quite different picture in the storage of the Louvre, catalogued as Lucretia and Tarquin (French: Lucrèce et Tarquin), dated to the first quarter of the 17th century and attributed to the workshop of Giordano.[6] This picture was once part of the art collection of Louis La Caze (1798–1869), which he bequeathed to the Louvre.[6] Another picture by Luca Giordano on this subject is in a private collection.[7]