ART AND IMAGES IN PSYCHIATRY SECTION EDITOR: JAMES C. HARRIS, MD Tarquin and Lucretia (Rape of Lucretia) Tears harden lust, though marble wear with raining./...Herpity-pleading eyes are sadly fix’d/In the remorseless wrinkles of his face... She conjures him by high almighty Jove/...Byheruntimely tears, her husband’s love,/By holy hu- man law, and common troth,/By heaven and earth and all the power of both,/That to his borrow’d bed he make retire,/And stoop to honor, not to foul desire.1(p17) UCRETIA WAS A LEGENDARY HEROINE OF ANCIENT shadow so his expression is concealed as he rips off Lucretia’s Rome, the quintessence of virtue, the beautiful wife remaining clothing. Lucretia physically resists his violence and of the nobleman Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus.2 brutality. A sculpture decorating the bed has fallen to the floor, In a lull in the war at Ardea in 509 BCE, the young the sheets are in disarray, and Lucretia’s necklace is broken, noblemen passed their idle time together at din- her pearls scattered. Both artists transmit emotion to the viewer, Lners and in drinking bouts. When the subject of their wives came Titian through her facial expression and Tintoretto in the vio- up, every man enthusiastically praised his own, and as their ri- lent corporeal chaos of the rape itself. valry grew, Collatinus proposed that they mount horses and see Lucretia survived the rape but committed suicide. After en- the disposition of the wives for themselves, believing that the best during the rape, she called her husband and her father to her test is what meets his eyes when a woman’s husband enters un- and asked them to seek revenge. When so assured, she killed expectedly. Arriving in Rome at dusk, the others found their wives herself, despite their pleas, to prove her innocence and to dem- whiling away the time at a luxurious banquet and engaging in onstrate her refusal to live with tainted honor.4 For Shakespeare, other pleasures. Yet Lucretia, although it was late at night, was although she stabs herself, it is Tarquin who pushed the dag- busily spinning her wool in the lamplight in the hall of their home; ger into her heart. Revenge for her death led to a pivotal event she was declared most virtuous. On seeing her, Sextus Tarqui- in Roman history: the Tarquin monarchy was overthrown, lead- nius, son of the Etruscan king of Rome, was seized with desire ing to the birth of the first Roman Republic.2 for her, not only with her beauty, but also for her chastity. Sev- Medieval and Renaissance artists illustrated many themes eral days later, Tarquin took a male slave as an attendant and from classical mythology or ancient history involving abduc- went to Lucretia’s home without Collatinus’ knowledge. As his tion and rape. The word rape is derived from the Latin rapere: kinsman, Tarquin was courteously received as a guest. That night to seize, to carry off by force, to abduct. It was rarely used in after dinner, he entered Lucretia’s bed chamber armed with a knife. Latin for sexual violation. The typical Latin word for what is 1 William Shakespeare tells the story of what happened in his epic now referred to as rape is stuprum, referring to disgrace, de- poem The Rape of Lucrece: filement, dishonor, debauchery, and violation. Imagine her as one in dead of night/...Thatthinksshehasbeheld Tarquin and Lucretia was not the only rape painted by Titian some ghastly sprite/...What terror ‘tis!...From sleep disturbed, heed- and Tintoretto. Tintoretto painted the Rape of Helen [of Troy], a fully doth view/The sight that makes supposed terror true.1(p15) painting well known for its battle scenes.4 Mythological abduc- tions were portrayed as well. The Rape of Europa is one of Ti- Recognizing her assailant, she pleads with him (epigraph). tian’s best paintings. Jupiter, who was enamored with Europa, de- But he seeks to dominate his victim and makes it clear to her cided to abduct her. He transformed himself into a tame white that if she refuses him, he will kill her and his slave and hu- bull. When Europa was drawn to the beautiful bull, she caressed miliate her and her family by placing their dead bodies to- his flanks and climbed onto his back. The painting depicts the gether so that it would appear that she was caught in adultery moment that she was suddenly and unexpectedly carried away with a slave. To avoid this shame, she must submit to him for by Jupiter to Crete. There he seduced her or ravished her. Both the sake of her husband and children. The encounter was dra- painted the rape of Danae, a legendary princess of Argos. Her fa- matized by Shakespeare: ther, Acrisius, heeding an oracle that foretold that her son would Lucrece, ...Ifthou deny [my pleasure], then force must work my way,/ kill him, kept her locked away in a bronze tower. Seeing her alone, For in thy bed I purpose to destroy thee;/That done, some worthless Jupiter turned himself into a shower of gold that passed through slave of mine I’ll slay./To kill thine honor with thy life’s decay;/And in the roof, poured down into her lap, and impregnated her. thy dead arms do I mean to place him,/Swearing I slew him, seeing thee 1(p16) Perhaps the best-known painting illustrating abduction is embrace him. Nicolas Poussin’s Rape of the Sabine Women.6 The Romans needed Venetian artists Titian (c 1488-1576) and Tintoretto (1518- brides and invited the Sabine men and women to a celebra- 1594) each painted Tarquin and Lucretia.3,4 For Titian, her re- tion, where they abducted the women. In the painting, nearly sistance to rape is unambiguous as she tearfully pushes back all the women are shown resisting the Romans. The men, hus- her assailant, who brandishes a knife; she appears cowed and bands and fathers, are shown trying to prevent the abduction, imploring. At the left of the painting, Tarquin’s slave holds back rape, and marriage of the women to the Romans. Women were the curtain of Lucretia’s bed. The light falls on Lucretia’s face viewed as property and the crime of their abduction was against and body; it catches the tip of Tarquin’s dagger, the tear on Lu- their husbands and fathers. Although clearly apparent, the dis- cretia’s cheek, the bracelet on her arm, and the wedding ring tress of the Sabine women is rarely emphasized by art histori- on the finger of the hand that pushes him back.5 It is a violent ans. Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome who ordered the scene that could be that of murder as well as rape.4 Tintoretto capture of the Sabine women, justified his deed by celebrating presents a frighteningly violent rape scene (Figure). Tar- the Sabine women as the mothers of Rome who later became quin’s sword is cast to the floor and he is nude; his face is in peacemakers between the Sabines and Romans. (REPRINTED) ARCH GEN PSYCHIATRY/ VOL 65 (NO. 3), MAR 2008 WWW.ARCHGENPSYCHIATRY.COM 250 ©2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 10/01/2021 Modern critics question whether art historians, who focus on works of art for their aesthetic value, have sanitized wom- en’s experience of rape, a violent sexual crime, and glamor- ized and eroticized it, not sufficiently emphasizing the suffer- ing of the victim.6 Heroic rape images, particularly those involving the gods, adorned marriage chests in the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy. They were meant to signify to the bride the importance of chastity, sexual submission to her husband, sacrifice for family, and the role as peacemaker.6 The suffering of the abducted woman was not emphasized. Renaissance artists portrayed woman as well as men as sexual aggressors. The story of Iempsar, Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39), is a cautionary tale about a married woman who pursues a man who does not return her affection. Potiphar was a captain in Pharaoh’s army who bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites. Rec- ognizing his abilities, he promoted Joseph to oversee his es- tate, where he meets Iemspar. She pressures Joseph to lie with her, but he resists. Finally when alone with him, she grabs his garment and demands that he do her bidding. He flees, leav- ing his garment in her hands. She falsely accuses him of at- tempted rape and he is put into prison. The ancient view of women as property persisted. In Shakespeare’s London, under English common law, wives and daughters were legally considered property. Thus the com- plaint against a tyrant7 was unlawful seizure of the property of the husband or father. In 17th-century England under the law of coverture, a married woman was feme covert; her legal exis- tence was suspended or incorporated into that of her hus- Figure. Tintoretto’s Tarquin and Lucretia (1580/90). band.7(p171) She could not contract or bring suit in her own name. Rape has always been underreported: rapists were rarely con- tal health of women victims.8 Nearly 200 000 women are be- victed, and when they were convicted, sentences varied. Sen- lieved to have been raped during the battle for Bangladeshi in- tences were often light, but when assaultive rape was defini- dependence in 1971, and women were systematically raped in tively proved, it was punishable by death as a capital crime under Bosnia in the 1990s.