De geschiedenis van Lucretia

Lucretia sits at the center of a domestic interior, focused on her work with a distaff while surrounded by three servants engaged in spinning and carding wool. To the left, through an arched doorway, a group of armed men is seen approaching the house. The image captures the moment from Roman history when Lucretia is discovered to be the most virtuous of wives because she is found working late into the night.

Lucretia serves as a primary exemplar of the virtue of 'pudicitia' (chastity and modesty) within the Neostoic and moral-philosophical traditions of the Renaissance. Her story was used by humanist thinkers to discuss the relationship between private virtue and the political health of the state, as her subsequent tragedy led to the founding of the Roman Republic.