An oil painting of Lucretia, standing, full-length facing the front, with her head turned half left. She is naked but for a long pink cloth which is held above her head and falls down her left side. She is preparing to stab herself with the dagger in her right hand.

A legendary figure in the history of the Roman Republic, Lucretia’s rape by the Etruscan king’s son and her subsequent suicide were the immediate cause of the revolution that overthrew the monarchy and established the Roman Republic. Often the distinction between Renaissance representations of Lucretia and Dido is not very clear, however the subject here seems assured by comparison with the drawing held by the sitter in Lotto’s female portrait of c. 1520 (National Gallery, London).

Traditionally attributed to Titian, it has been suggested that this painting may belong to a small but growing number of works that can be attributed to Titian’s younger brother, Francesco di Gregorio Vecellio (born c. 1490). The painting is too coarse to be by Titian’s hand, but technically and colouristically it resembles Francesco’s work, especially in the pale and fluent handling of the landscape and frothy clouds.