Poietik der Ambivalenz. Zur Sinngenerierung in Tizians ‚Vergewaltigung der Lucretia‘ (1571)

Abstract

The article analyzes the aesthetic structure of Titian’s Rape of Lucretia, a late painting of the year 1517, that was done for Philip II. Contrary to the painting tradition, this work does not show Lucretia’s suicide, but Tarquinius’s preceding act of violence. The incident is presented ambivalently: motivicly, Titian emphasizes the vehemence of the attack, however, on the aesthetic level and regarding the illustration of the act and its surroundings, he also refers back to images and interpretations that want to blame part of the crime on the woman. This ambivalence highly challenges the observer’s contribution to the creation of meaning, above all their image perception, so it aims at an imaginary image memory that all observers have at their command and which they access for the interpretation of real images.