“The Story of Lucretia” by Sandro Botticelli

Brutus’ Ancestor assassinated another would be King

Many years later, one of the leading assassins of Julius Caesar was a descendant of Lucius Junius Brutus. The plotters’ primary charge against Julius Caesar was that Julius Caesar was attempting to make himself a king.

Thus a leading conspirator Cassius, enticed Brutus’ direct descendant, Marcus Junius Brutus, a prominent Roman senator, to join the conspiracy by referring to his ancestor’s role in deposing the last king of Rome.

“The Death of Julius Caesar” by Vincenzo Camuccini at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (1804-1805)

Roman Republic

Since Rome’s foundation, its rulers had been Kings, elected for life by the patricians who made up the Roman Senate. The last Roman king was Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (“Tarquin the Proud”).

Tarquin was expelled in 509 because his son Sextus Tarquinius had raped the noblewoman Lucretia, who afterward took her own life.

Lucretia’s father, husband, and relative Lucius Junius Brutus mustered support from the Senate and army and forced Tarquin into exile.

The Senate agreed to abolish kingship. Most of the king’s former functions were transferred to two consuls, who were elected to office for a term of one year. Each consul could act as a check on his colleague.

If a consul abused his powers in office, he could be prosecuted when his term expired. Brutus and Lucretia’s husband became Republican Rome’s first consuls.

These events are quasi-mythological and fitted a narrative of personal vengeance against a tyrant leading to his overthrow, a common theme among Greek cities.

Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance who belonged to the Florentine School under Lorenzo de’ Medici’s patronage.

His mythological masterpieces are his best-known works today. However, he painted a range of religious subjects and portraits. He and his workshop were primarily known for their many beautiful Madonna and Child paintings.

He lived all his life in the same neighborhood of Florence. His only significant time elsewhere was the few months he spent painting in Pisa in 1474 and his work at the Sistine Chapel in Rome in 1481–82.

The Story of Lucretia

• Title:                  The Story of Lucretia
• Artist:                 Sandro Botticelli
• Year:                  1496–1504
• Medium:            Tempera and oil on wood
• Dimensions        83.8 cm × 176.8 cm (33.0 in × 69.6 in)
• Museum:            Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Sandro Botticelli

• Name:               Sandro Botticelli
• Birth Name:       Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi
• Born:                  445 – Florence, Republic of Florence, (now Italy)
• Died:                  510 (aged c. 64) – Florence, Republic of Florence
• Nationality:        Italian
• Movement:        Italian Renaissance
• Notable works:
  • Primavera
  • The Birth of Venus
  • Venus and Mars
  • Adoration of the Magi
  • The Virgin and the Child in a Niche
  • The Story of Lucretia
  • Mystic Nativity

Re-Imagining Botticelli

A Tour of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

• “The Story of Lucretia” by Sandro Botticelli
• “The Rape of Europa” by Titian
• “The Concert” by Johannes Vermeer (whereabouts unknown since its theft in 1990)

Last King of Rome: Revolutions

Botticelli Biography

~~~

“There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life.
Is bound in shallows and miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.”
– Brutus in William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

~~~

Photo Credit: 1) Sandro Botticelli [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 2) Sandro Botticelli [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 3) Vincenzo Camuccini [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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