Sophonisba Receiving the Cup of Poison

With 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.