ART, TRAVEL, KARI AND LUCAS

All the Kari and Lucas books are going to have something to do with art, and something to do with travel. One of the things I want to do with these books is to let readers see that there's nothing snooty about art. Regular kids can like all kinds of art—paintings like the ones by Rembrandt, sculptures like the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum, and other kinds of art as well. And I want to show kids that there's a big world out there, and I want them to want to explore it and have adventures in it.

So the first book, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, is about Rembrandt's work and takes place in London, Paris and Amsterdam. The second book, Rescuing Seneca Crane, is about how Kari and Lucas find and rescue a fifteen-year-old concert pianist who was kidnapped after playing a concert with an orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. The third book, which for now is called The Safari Adventure (the name might change), is about Kari and Lucas tracking down the person who's stealing rock art from some caves in Kenya.

REMBRANDT'S PAINTINGS OF LUCRETIA

Lucretia was this woman who supposedly lived in the sixth century B.C.E. This was, like, when they used to have gladiators. She was married to a Roman soldier who was always bragging about what a wonderful, good, pure, loving woman his wife was.

When he was off fighting some war, a soldier named Sextus Tarquinius, one of his rivals, sneaked back to Rome and flirted with Lucretia to try to get her to have an affair with him. She wouldn't, so he raped her.

Now back in those days it wasn't bad enough that a woman had that kind of thing happen to her. What made it even worse was that it totally wrecked her reputation. A lot of women who got attacked like that would have been kicked out of their house. It was the kind of thing that makes my mother go on and on about what a rotten deal women have always gotten. I have to admit, it does seem pretty unfair.

Anyway, Lucretia was a truly good person. So she called her husband and her father back from the war and told them about what had happened to her. They said it wasn't her fault and it wasn't that big of a deal. But because it was so dishonorable, she picked up a dagger and killed herself. Can you believe that? Even though she didn't do anything wrong!

By the way, I'm not making this up. This may not be absolutely true, but it's a real legend. Google it.

Rembrandt's part of the story happened in Amsterdam way back in the 1600s. You probably know this, but Amsterdam is a city in the Netherlands (also called Holland), which is in Europe. The people who live there are called Dutch, which doesn't seem to make much sense, but that's the way it is. The Netherlands is the place where they have windmills, and where people used to wear wooden shoes. Anyway, Rembrandt van Rijn was a painter living in Amsterdam way back then. Nowadays most people just call him Rembrandt. You've maybe heard of him, and you might even have seen some of his paintings if you go to museums.

Rembrandt painted two pictures of Lucretia. In one, she's all dressed up in a beautiful white and gold gown, and she's holding a dagger like she's getting ready to stab herself. That one hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. In the other picture she's already stabbed herself, her dress is hanging loose, and there's blood coming out of her side. That one belongs to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

A lot of people, when they look at a painting like this, think about how much money the painting cost, or what makes it look like other paintings by Rembrandt, or how it's different from pictures by other Dutch painters from that time, or how Rembrandt used paint and brushes to do what he did.

But I'll bet if Rembrandt were still alive, he wouldn't want you to think about any of that when you see his Lucretia paintings. What he'd want you to look at is Lucretia's expression. It is so sad. That's what's important. It's what Rembrandt wanted you to see and feel, and it's what makes these pictures masterpieces.

So when you go to museums, remember just to look at what's in the picture, what the painter was trying to do and to tell you. None of the rest really matters.

Lucretia, 1668
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
Minneapolis Institute of Art