Neoclassicism

Gavin Hamilton

The Death of Lucretia

1763–67

Oil on canvas, 84 × 104 in. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

A Roman woman's suicide and the men swearing revenge over her: a public oath painted about twenty years before David's Oath of the Horatii.

Look at

• The raised dagger is the focal point, just right of centre, where Brutus's outstretched arm meets the old man's grip.
• Figures stand in a shallow band across the front, like a relief.
• Strong reds, blues, purple and yellow are set in broad blocks against a dark background.

• Earlier known as The Oath of Brutus; Yale's record lists that title among its former names.
• Paul Mellon Collection; shown in Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century, Philadelphia and Houston, 2000.

Image: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection · CC0 (Yale Center for British Art open access)