# Sophonisba Receiving the Goblet [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PRETI, Mattia]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 198 x 174 cm ## Commentary Sophonisba Receiving the Goblet c. 1670 Oil on canvas, 198 x 174 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon 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. Sophonisba's death is a popular theme among Baroque painters of Italy and northern Europe. ## Related artworks - [A Mother Entrusting Her Sons to Christ]() - [Absalom's Feast]() - [Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius Fleeing Troy]() - [Beheading of St. Catherine]() - [Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery]() - [Christ in Glory]() - [Concert \(detail\)]() - [Concert]() - [David Playing the Harp before Saul]() - [Decollation of St John \(detail\)]() - [Erminia, Princess of Antioch]() - [Painting in the choir: Crucifixion of St Andrew]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()