Brutus, Lucretia and Collatinus explained

Image Upright:1
Brutus, Lucretia and Collatinus
Artist:Giovan Francesco Maineri, after Ercole de' Roberti
Medium:Tempera on panel
Height Metric:47
Width Metric:30
Metric Unit:cm
Imperial Unit:in
City:Modena
Museum:Galleria Estense

Brutus, Lucretia and Collatinus is a painting of in tempera on panel, attributed to Giovan Francesco Maineri but from preparatory drawings by Ercole de' Roberti. It is in the Galleria Estense in Modena.[1]

This panel, The Wife of Hasdrubal and Her Children and Brutus and Portia were originally part of a series of works depicting famous women of antiquity, probably commissioned by Ercole I d'Este's wife Eleanor of Aragon and referring back to the motto of her father, Ferdinand I of Naples: "Preferisco la morte al disonore" ('I prefer death to dishonour').[2]

Notes and References

  1. M. Molteni, Ercole de' Roberti, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo 1995, pp. 177–78, n. 41
  2. Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:410