Tarquin and Lucretia and the "Idea of Italy" gallery at the Fitzwilliam

"The Idea of Italy," a gallery rethought in 2026

In July 2026, the Fitzwilliam reopened Gallery 7 under the title "The Idea of Italy," the result of a research project between the Universities of Cambridge and St Andrews. Rather than presenting Italy as an isolated artistic center, the room connects works by Titian, Veronese, Canaletto, and Tintoretto to the networks of migration, trade, and religious exchange that shaped their making — pigments from the Americas and Central Asia, glass and ceramics inspired by the Islamic world, craftsmen who came to Italy from elsewhere.

1. A rape painted by an artist past eighty

Tarquin and Lucretia, painted around 1571, shows the assault of Lucretia by Sextus Tarquinius, an episode from the Roman legend that precedes the founding of the Republic. Titian, then over eighty years old, returns to a subject he had already treated nearly sixty years earlier in a version now held in Vienna — but this time with a brutality and physical tension unusual in his late work. A composite X-ray analysis has revealed extensive compositional revisions, a sign of work still carefully reworked despite the painter's age. It was the last commission Titian completed for Philip II of Spain.

2. From the Spanish royal collection to an anonymous "foreign nobleman"

The painting probably belonged to King Philip II of Spain from 1571, then remained in the Spanish royal collections until 1813, when Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother and deposed King of Spain, took it to France as he lost his throne. It later resurfaces in London, sold at Christie's in 1845 as the property of a mysterious "foreign nobleman" never identified in the sale catalogue.

The painting then changes hands several more times — the collectors C. J. Nieuwenhuys, William Coningham, Lord Northwick, Charles Scarisbrick, then Charles Butler, whose estate sale in 1911 passed it through the dealer Agnew's — before being given to the Fitzwilliam by the collector and painter Charles Fairfax Murray in 1918.

3. Veronese, an Ovid myth that crossed four countries

Hermes, Herse and Aglauros, painted by Veronese around 1576-1584, illustrates an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses: Hermes, messenger of the gods, falls in love with the Athenian princess Herse, but her jealous sister Aglauros tries to bar his way into her chamber — Hermes turns her to stone. The painting, with its theatrical architectural setting recalling Palladio's Teatro Olimpico, forms with the Titian one of the three large canvases that dominate the gallery's central bay, both drawn from the Orléans collection.

Its journey is a novel in itself: probably owned by Emperor Rudolf II until his death in 1612, the painting entered the Imperial collections in Prague, before being carried off to Sweden after the city's fall in 1648 and joining the collection of Queen Christina. It later passed through the Orléans collection in Paris, was exhibited at London's Lyceum in 1798-1799, sold at auction in London in 1800, then bequeathed to the Fitzwilliam in 1816 by its founder, Viscount Richard Fitzwilliam — a journey crossing Austria, Bohemia, Sweden, France and England in barely two centuries.

4. Zuccari, the Three Kings, and an empty frame that asks as many questions as a painting

Adoration of the Kings, painted by Taddeo Zuccari in the 1550s, opens the gallery's route: the gold, frankincense, and myrrh brought by the Magi evoke the international trade in precious materials, while the presence of Balthazar, the Black Magus, raises questions of representation in Renaissance art. The painting hangs beside an empty Venetian frame, decorated with Islamic-inspired patterns, which highlights the artistic and commercial exchange between Venice and the Islamic world — a frame shown without a painting, inviting visitors to reconsider the objects and craftsmanship usually pushed to the margins of art history.

5. Tintoretto and Salvator Rosa, violence and grief told through female figures

Tintoretto's Adoration of the Shepherds, painted in the 1540s, shows the Christ Child lying in a basket, watched over by the Virgin adjusting his sheet, by Saint Joseph leaning over a wicker fence, and by three young shepherds — one of them carrying two chickens hanging from his arm, a rustic detail typical of Tintoretto's Venetian realism.

Salvator Rosa's Human Fragility, painted in 1656 during a plague outbreak in Naples that killed several members of his family, shows a winged skeleton guiding the hand of a child writing a Latin sentence: "Conception is a sin, Birth is pain, Life is toil, Death a necessity." The seated woman is thought to represent Lucrezia, the painter's mistress, and the child his own son, who died in infancy.

6. Canaletto, two views of Venice conceived as a pair for the Grand Tour

St Mark's, Venice and Interior Court of the Doge's Palace, painted by Canaletto around 1756, form a pair conceived for Grand Tour travelers: these carefully composed views of Venice turn the city into an image to be owned, a high-end travel souvenir as much as a work of art — the gallery links this to the tourism and commerce that shaped how Italian cities were represented in paint.

7. Poussin and Reni, a sacrament and an apparition

Nicolas Poussin’s Extreme Unction (1638-1640, oil on canvas, 96.5 × 122.3 cm) first belonged to Cassiano dal Pozzo in Rome, then passed down his family line to Maria Laura Boccapaduli. In 1785 the Scottish dealer James Byres acquired it for the 4th Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle, where it remained through descent to the 11th Duke. Accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax, it was allocated to the Fitzwilliam in 2012, with substantial public fundraising led in part by the Art Fund.

Guido Reni’s Christ appearing to the Virgin (about 1608, oil on canvas, 223.5 × 141.6 cm) was bequeathed to the museum by Viscount Fitzwilliam in 1816. The painting came from the collection of Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and remained in the Orléans family before appearing at “Mr Bryan’s Gallery” in London at a sale exhibition in 1798-99. It was then attributed to Ludovico Carracci; it is now recognised as a work by Reni, of the Bolognese school.

How much time

On Tarquin and Lucretia, move in close: the revisions visible to the naked eye around the arms and drapery betray a work reworked more than once despite the painter's age.

Background on "The Idea of Italy" gallery — 5 minutes.
Tarquin and Lucretia (Titian) — 10 minutes.
Hermes, Herse and Aglauros (Veronese) — 8 minutes.
Adoration of the Kings (Zuccari) — 6 minutes.
Adoration of the Shepherds (Tintoretto) — 6 minutes.
Human Fragility (Salvator Rosa) — 6 minutes.
St Mark's, Venice (Canaletto) — 5 minutes.
Interior Court of the Doge's Palace (Canaletto) — 5 minutes.
Extreme Unction (Poussin) — 7 minutes.
Christ appearing to the Virgin (Reni) — 6 minutes.

Sources and verification

Checked against the official notice of the Fitzwilliam Museum (fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk / data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk), the "Idea of Italy" gallery press release (July 2026), and cross-checked with Wikipedia EN/FR.

Displays and room openings can change. Check the Fitzwilliam Museum website on the day of your visit before following a route.

Listen to the commentary in the gallery

This route gives you a thread to follow. In front of an artwork, CulturAll adds the audio commentary: photograph the work or its label, listen, then ask your questions.

The Titian painted past eighty, sold in London under a false name