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Sesso cortigiano. Fließende Geschlechtergrenzen und Lorenzo Lottos Portrait einer Frau als Lukrezia
The controversially discussed portrait of a Woman as Lucretia by Lorenzo Lotto is shown here to be a fluid construction of gender. A construction which is well documented in the early modern period but has been little studied to date. The fact that Lotto’s Lucretia should be read as both female and male makes it recognizable as a projection exclusively related to courtesans and prostitutes, i.e. as a sesso cortigiano. This becomes plausible as soon as an unjustly marginalized suggestion by Rona Goffen is taken up and placed in the context of newly read sources. In this way, it is possible for the first time to identify the sitter as Lucrezia Venier, robbed and stabbed to death by her lover. She was a woman with a dubious reputation. For this reason, a traditional interpretation of Lucretia‘s iconography was invoked, to show Lukrezia Venier in this post-mortem portrait as representation of a gender that was only desirable in cortigiane. A gender that was, as it were, fluid.
