The death of Lucretia
XVI century. Wash, Pencil, Pencil ground, Grey-brown ink on paper.Not on display
This drawing and D1728, which are variants of the same composition, were connected by the Suidas with Cambiaso´s painting of Lucretia, datable c. 1575, formerly in a private collection, Lugano, then in the Suida Manning Collection, New York, and now in the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, at the University of Texas, Austin. A painting by Cambiaso showing the figure three-quarter length and in a closely related pose, but without the swathe of drapery about her loins, is in the Prado (inv. no. 62).
A drawing apparently by Cambiaso, evidently related in composition to the ex-Suida Manning/ Austin picture, is in the Brera, Milan (inv. no. 329). In composition, the Milan drawing, which shows the figure of Lucretia standing more upright than either of her counterparts in the Austin and Prado pictures, is clearly very close to the present drawing, with minor variants in the position of the pillow and the decorative panel at the front of the bed.
Turner, Nicholas, From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracc: a century of Italian drawings from the Prado, Virginia, Art Services International, 2008, p.265-266
