The kidnapping of Lucretia

Reference: 4938_AM
Author Cornelis CORT
Year: 1571
Measures: 270 x 376 mm
€1,500.00

Reference: 4938_AM
Author Cornelis CORT
Year: 1571
Measures: 270 x 376 mm
€1,500.00

Description

Engraving, 1571, signed and dated at lower left. After Titian. Example of the first state of three. A Magnific impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the platemark, in perfect conditions.

The engraving comes from a painting by Titian for Philip II of Spain. Titian created the painting in 1571 ,when he had already passed the age of eighty. In the same year, Cornelius Cort provides to the translation.

The indignity suffered by Lucretia, a Roman matron, carried out by Sesto Tarquinio, son of Tarquinio il Superbo , narrated by Livy, is the legendary episode that will determine the revolt of the Romans against Tarquinio , their expulsion from Rome and the transition from monarchy to a republic. The woman, who preferred suicide to the dishonor, became a symbol of conjugal chastity and virtue. The scene has a dramatic tone: Lucretia, naked on the bed, looking terrified, tries to defend from the violent desire of Sesto Tarquinio which requires it to be quiet and threatened with a knife, while on the right a man pulls away the curtain to observe. In the excitement, a slipper slides off the foot of Lucretia. Whether the outrage that the suicide of Lucretia has been a very popular theme in the iconography, especially in the Renaissance.

Titian hosted the Dutch engraver Cornelius Cort in Venice for about two years, authorizing it to affect a number of his works, all protected by the privilege of the senate of Venice obtained in 1567.

Literature

The New Hollstein, Dutch & Flemish, Cornelis Cort, p. III, p. 81 n. 191; C. Witcombe, Copyright in the Renaissance, p. XXV; C. Witcombe, Print-publishing in Seexteenth Century Rome, p. 334.

Cornelis CORT (Hoorn, nr Alkmaar, 1533 - Roma, prima del 22 Aprile 1578)

North Netherlandish engraver and draughtsman, active in Flanders and Italy. His first documented works are a series of engravings issued by the Antwerp publisher Hieronymous Cock, beginning c. 1553. Cort may have been an apprentice within Cock’s establishment, as none of these prints was inscribed with his name until after the plates had passed out of Cock’s hands. A letter of 1567 to Titian from the Netherlandish writer and painter Domenicus Lampsonius (1532–99) describes Cock as Cort’s master. By 1560 Cort had developed a bold and strongly modelled sculptural style of engraving, influenced in part by the Italian Giorgio Ghisi, who worked for Cock between 1550 and 1555. Cort was particularly successful in reproducing the Italianate figure compositions of Frans Floris, after whom he engraved more than 50 prints, notably the Liberal Arts (seven prints; 1565) and the Labours of Hercules (ten prints; 1565). He also reproduced compositions by Maarten van Heemskerck, Andrea del Sarto, Rogier van der Weyden and others while working for Cock.

Literature

The New Hollstein, Dutch & Flemish, Cornelis Cort, p. III, p. 81 n. 191; C. Witcombe, Copyright in the Renaissance, p. XXV; C. Witcombe, Print-publishing in Seexteenth Century Rome, p. 334.

Cornelis CORT (Hoorn, nr Alkmaar, 1533 - Roma, prima del 22 Aprile 1578)

North Netherlandish engraver and draughtsman, active in Flanders and Italy. His first documented works are a series of engravings issued by the Antwerp publisher Hieronymous Cock, beginning c. 1553. Cort may have been an apprentice within Cock’s establishment, as none of these prints was inscribed with his name until after the plates had passed out of Cock’s hands. A letter of 1567 to Titian from the Netherlandish writer and painter Domenicus Lampsonius (1532–99) describes Cock as Cort’s master. By 1560 Cort had developed a bold and strongly modelled sculptural style of engraving, influenced in part by the Italian Giorgio Ghisi, who worked for Cock between 1550 and 1555. Cort was particularly successful in reproducing the Italianate figure compositions of Frans Floris, after whom he engraved more than 50 prints, notably the Liberal Arts (seven prints; 1565) and the Labours of Hercules (ten prints; 1565). He also reproduced compositions by Maarten van Heemskerck, Andrea del Sarto, Rogier van der Weyden and others while working for Cock.