SIMON VOUET (?). 1590-1649

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Oil on canvas. 192 X 157 cm. Inv. No 2766 The subject is taken from Livy's work Ab urbe con-dita (III : 47 ff.). In the Hermitage catalogues the picture was listed as The Death of Lucretia. At present the traditional attribution of the picture to Vouet is considered doubtful. According to Ch. Sterling's presumption it belongs to an artist of the J. Blanchard circle. J. P. Saint-Marie ascribes it to Jacques de Lestin.

Provenance: until 1764 The J. E. Gotzkowski Collection, Berlin; 1764—1930 The Hermitage, St Petersburg — Leningrad; since 1930 The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

Bibliography: Кат. ГМИИ 1948, p. 21; Кат. ГМИИ 1961, p. 45; Cat. Ermitage 1774, No 237; Cat. Ermi-tage 1863, No 1443; Waagen 1864, p. 296; Сомов 1900, No 1443; Бенуа 1912, p. 206; Кат. Эрмитажа 1916, No 1443; Dussieux 1856, pp. 83, 443; Reau 1929, No 409 (entitled The Death of Lucretia); W. R. Crelly, The Painting of Simon Vouet, New Haven — London, 1962, p. 179, No 69

6 THE DEATH OF VIRGINIA