The Portrait of
Lucretia Romana
A 2.500 year old crime. from Shakespeare and Cranach to AI
In the pursuit of exploring the discourse surrounding violence against women, we found ourselves drawn to the story of Lucrezia Romana – a woman of strength and courage who has stood the test of time as a symbol of feminine self-determination
r story dates back 2,500 years, to a time when she was violated by the son of the Etruscan king, Tarquin the Proud. Her death ultimately led to the fall of the Roman monarchy and the dawn of a new Republic. Narrated by Titus Livius 500 years after the events, and immortalized through the words of Shakespeare 2,000 years later, Lucrezia’s tale has resonated throughout the ages.
We knew that the only way to truly capture the essence of her story was through art. So we embarked on a project to create a digital masterpiece that would combine the artistic mastery of Cranach with the poetic prose of Shakespeare. Our aim was to bring her story to the present, using technology and artificial intelligence to create an immersive and emotionally-charged experience.
Once again, we turned to the incomparable talents of Gaia Riposati, whose on-screen performance was transformed through the use of various AI algorithms, to bring Cranach’s painting to life and give voice to Shakespeare’s words. In this way, two 17th-century masters were brought together four centuries later, united in a powerful artistic expression of Lucrezia’s story.
The result was a stunning performance, seamlessly fusing the past with the present, the art with the technology, and the history with the emotion. It was as though we had closed a 2,500-year-old circle, bringing Lucrezia’s story into the light once again, and celebrating the strength and determination of women through the ages. We are deeply proud to have been a part of this project, which melded our love for history and art with our technological curiosity and creativity.
Our action for the World Day against “Violence Against Women”
We left a sign. As #nuvolaproject for #UrbExperience we left this talking sign/signal. The voice of Lucretia Romana reverberates in the Antiquarium, dedicated to her memory, at the Archeological Park of Appian Way in Rome, and tells her story with the words of Shakespeare and the sign of Cranach the Old. As a culmination of the three-year project #PaesaggiUmani for #CultureRoma, it is important to leave a lasting trace to signify the importance of remembering to build a future, a bridge made of different languages in dialogue between art, science, artificial intelligence, but above all, human interrelation in a strong expression of connected intelligence to bring ideas to life. Those who will visit the archeological site of extraordinary charm, thanks to Urban Experience’s operation (Carlo Infante), will be able to listen and see Lucrezia Romana relive fragments of her story in the digital artwork “The Portrait of Lucrezia” by NuvolaProject (Gaia Riposati and Massimo Di Leo). A special thanks to Simone Quilici.
There is a particular emotion in leaving this mark precisely on the #InternationalDayfortheEliminationofViolenceagainstWomen, to symbolize the power of memory and the importance of standing against violence towards women, through the creative and technological combination of art and science.