University of Mary Washington Eagle Scholar Student Research Submissions Spring 5-5-2018 Representations of Lucrezia Borgia and the Image of the Moral Exemplar in the Late Quattrocento and Early Cinquecento Nina Wutrich Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Wutrich, Nina, "Representations of Lucrezia Borgia and the Image of the Moral Exemplar in the Late Quattrocento and Early Cinquecento" (2018). Student Research Submissions. 237. https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/237 This Honors Project is brought to you for free and open access by Eagle Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Research Submissions by an authorized administrator of Eagle Scholar. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Nina Wutrich Representations of Lucrezia Borgia and the Image of the Moral Exemplar in the Late Quattrocento and Early Cinquecento ARTH 492: Individual Study in Art History Paper submitted in partial fulfillment of Honors in Art History 5 May 2018 Marjorie Och Professor of Art History Faculty Advisor Jon McMillan Chair, Department of Art and Art History Wutrich 1 During the late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century lifetime of Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI Borgia, Lucrezia profited from a carefully crafted image wherein comparisons were drawn between herself and saints, holy women, and moral exemplars from classical antiquity. This appropriation of imagery evolved as Lucrezia herself matured; the representations shift from those where Lucrezia completely disguises herself as a morally exemplary woman such as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, to those where she presents herself, in her role as Duchess of Ferrara, as a morally exemplary holy woman in her own right.