Titian- Tarquin and Lucretia c1570, Fitzwilliam Museum

 Titian’s Tarquin and Lucretia represents a high point in a particular form of dramatic tension mastered by the artist.

 Painting needs tension. The still moment must be pregnant in some form.

 Consider Lucretia’s hand. It vainly attempts to fend off Tarquins immoral and violent sexual approach. It does not sit comfortably in space. It is neither on his chest nor explitally off it, it seems to be hovering in a void. Such a feeling is supported and founded by the softenss of the flehs painting. The form of the hand has emerged from the painterly process, not been held by and confined to preconceived and heavily drawn lines. Instead it held back from being given totally solid form, its more ephemeral qualityaiding the hovering quality. 

Titian depicts the act in flux. The hand seems constantly in the process of being about to touch. Its awkward spatial coordinates make us desire adjustment, the easiest of which is to place it more direclty onto his chest. The mental adjustment is then corrected by the visual truth of its non touch. As such an optical pulse is created, the hand seems to be oscillating between being on his chest and just off his chest. Whilst still it is as if her desperate and futile attempt to hold him off is tragically looped.

 The same is true of his right leg. It is pushed between her legs, forcing them open. Yet the formation of the hips is incorrect, they are twisted to far around. Again we correct them, pulling the hips back around and the leg a small amount out. This time it is the knee which seems to repeat its violent push between her legs. The power of such drama is supported by the emotive colouring of his stockings and loins. Deep crimson and violent red, sexual energy and rage. A formal symbolism supported by the violent proto Pollockesque splattering which cover his top. These confirm the inner beast which the madness in his eyes more literally illustrate.

The last dramatic repetition is from the knife. Drawn with two economical dashes of paint which only just hold onto their mimetic intension. We read it as a knife but then it so easily can disappear again, just to flickers. Its as if its falshing in and out of representation. The optics of the medium seem to create a kind of repeat threat which has a similar feeling to the flahses of the stabbing action in Hitchcok’s Psycho.

Titian’s Tarquin and Lucretia c1570, Fitzwilliam Museum; is a painting of genuiine dramatic horror. Tension is created by the challenge to the stillness of the painted moment. It feels like the stillness is constantly being pressured, the moment constantly in the process of being about to happen. The image not given the idealised stillness to fully deny a post script. Instead it seems like a moment held in flux, flickering, pulsing, breathing and waiting for the scream.

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