This intriguingly carved statuette can be attributed to a master close to Conrad Meit of Worms, one of the most accomplished artists of the Northern Renaissance. As court sculptor in Mechelen, he propagated the early Renaissance style while working for Margaret of Austria (r. 1507–30), temperamental regent of the Low Countries, and a passionate art patron and collector. Meit is documented to have made numerous small statuettes and portraits as well as large-scale sculpture for her. Depicted is the classical subject of Lucretia, wife of Lucius Tarquinius Colatinus and a lady of ancient Rome, who was praised equally for her beauty and domestic virtues. After having been insulted, Lucretia informed her father and her husband about her calamity, and stabbed herself to death after extracting from both an oath of vengeance, thus preserving her integrity.

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