The Death of Lucretia

The story of the Death of Lucretia was recorded by Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, both of whom count the event as a turning point that stirred the revolution and the collapse of the Roman empire. Domenico Parodi chose to depict Livy’s version, in which Brutus witnesses Lucretia’s suicide, creating a portrait histoiré, in which he casts his own family members into the drama. Domenico included a portrait of his father Filippo, noted sculptor and wood-carver, in the role of Brutus, gathering a mourning party to the left of the scene. The turbaned man in the mourning party, meanwhile, is thought to be a self-portrait (loc. cit.).