Tarquinius and Lucretia, from The Story of Lucretia

Art Historical Context

This captivating engraving, *Tarquinius and Lucretia* from *The Story of Lucretia*, was created by the Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius in 1578–79. As an engraving on laid paper, it forms part of a series illustrating the tragic Roman legend and reveals Goltzius’s early command of the medium. The compact sheet, roughly 8 by 10 inches, comes from the Art Institute of Chicago and demonstrates how finely incised lines can convey intense emotion and unfolding drama. The tale of Lucretia—a virtuous Roman matron assaulted by the king’s son—has long served as a powerful emblem of honor, chastity, and the overthrow of tyranny that founded the Roman Republic. Goltzius, working in the elegant, dynamic Mannerist style of late-sixteenth-century Northern Europe, infuses the figures with graceful tension typical of the period. Prints such as this one spread classical stories and artistic ideas far beyond any single painting, reaching collectors and viewers across the continent. Goltzius’s burin work produces rich textures and swirling contours that reward close looking, establishing him as one of the era’s greatest engravers. These images both instructed and delighted Renaissance audiences, linking ancient history to contemporary ideas of justice and integrity. Today they invite museum visitors to experience how a young artist transformed a moral legend into enduring visual poetry.

About the Artist

Hendrick Goltzius · 1558–1617

Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) was the most celebrated engraver of the Northern Renaissance and a pivotal figure in Dutch Mannerism. Born near the German-Dutch border, Goltzius transformed printmaking into a virtuoso art form through his revolutionary 'swelling line' technique, where the burin was manipulated to create lines of varying thickness that produced unprecedented tonal effects and three-d...