Sophonisba Receiving the Poisoned Chalice

The subject of this history painting is drawn from Livy’s Historia ab urbe condita. Sophonisba was the daughter of a Carthaginian general at the time of the second Punic war. She married a prince of neighbouring Numidia, allied to Rome, and succeeded in alienating him from his Roman masters. But he was captured by another Numidian leader Masinissa, who in turn fell in love with Sophonisba, and likewise married her. To prevent the loss of a second ally from the same cause the Roman general Scipio demanded that she be surrendered and sent captive to Rome. Her husband, not daring to defy Scipio, sent her a cup of poison which she drank.

The painting shows this dramatic last moment in the life of the young woman. Ermine robe and radiant crown denote her queenly rank. An elderly maid behind her, conscious of impending tragedy, gazes upward despairingly. In the background is a landscape with a dramatically illuminated evening sky. The painting was done in Rome, where Vouet had been living since 1613. The drama of the situation finds emphatic expression not only in the expressive eye-contact and the swirling detail of the figures, but also in the vigorous contrasts of lighting which put the heroine at the centre of the action.