Sophonisba Receiving the Cup of Poison

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Sophonisba Receiving the Cup of Poison

Artist Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (Italian (Venice), 1675-1741)

Place of OriginVenice, Italy

Dateabout 1708-1713

Dimensions73 1/8 x 60 3/4 in. (185.7 x 154.3 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1966.128

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 27

Label TextWith exuberant brushstrokes and a keen sense of energy and drama, Venetian painter Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini depicts the climactic moment in a tale of love, honor, and war. After Carthage (in modern Tunisia) falls to the great Roman general Scipio in 202 BCE, Carthaginian princess Sophonisba is taken captive by the Numidian prince and Roman ally Masinissa. When Sophinisba pleads with her captor not to place her “at the haughty and merciless disposal of any Roman,” Masinissa—overcome with love—immediately marries her. When Scipio demands that Sophonisba be marched captive through the streets of Rome, Masinissa reluctantly sends a servant to his new bride with a message and a cup of poison. The message informs Sophonisba that her new husband is presenting her with a marriage gift that fulfills his promise to deliver her from her Roman enemies. Pellegrini shows Sophonisba having just dropped the crumpled message. Surrounded by distraught attendants, she holds the shell-shaped goblet of poison, either ready to drink it or having just done so. She gazes upward as she calmly accepts death over dishonor, a pose and demeanor that link her to images of martyred saints.Published ReferencesB. Fredericksen and F. Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Collections, Cambridge, (Mass.), 1972, p. 160.

The Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 124, pl. 32.

Young, Eric, "European Paintings, The Toledo Museum of Art," (review) ; Connoisseur, vol. 196, no. 787, Sept. 1977, p. 68.

Hall, Nicholas H.J., ed. Colnaghi in America, New York, 1992, p. 133, [listed].

Knox, George, Antonio Pellegrini, 1675-1741, Oxford, 1955, p. 181, no. 28, p. 210.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 189, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryMinneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1969.

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Painting in Italy in the EIghteenth Century: Rococo to Romanticism, 1970, no. 30, repr. p. 83.

Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery; New Brunswick, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum; Atlanta, High Museum of Art at Georgia-Pacific Center, La Grand Maniere, historical and religious painting in France 1700-1800, 1987, no. 43, p. 138.