The Continence of Scipio

Description

This painting depicts a scene from the life of Scipio Africanus, the Roman general who defeated Hannibal in the Battle of Zama (in present-day Tunisia) in 202 BCE. Here Scipio demonstrates his leadership by acting with restraint (“continence”) in refusing to hold a woman as a captive of war. According to the story on which the painting is based, the woman’s fiancé, shown kneeling beside her, was a powerful prince who agreed to a military alliance with Scipio in gratitude for his lenience. The theatrical setting and costumes—the invented military helmets, anachronistically dressed characters, fanciful architecture, and gravity-defying drapery, for example— suggest that the artist’s aims were allegorical rather than historical, intended above all to illustrate for viewers the virtues of compassionate diplomacy.

Provenance

Probably Mr. Oliver, Castle Oliver, County Limerick, Ireland, by 1776 [The Continence of Scipio was mentioned with other paintings by Ricci in Arthur Young’s Tour of Ireland (1776-1779); probably by descent to Edith Jane Thomasina Morris of Dunkathal, County Cork,who married Sir George Colthurst of Blarney Castle in 1881 (letter of Margaret Lantry dated 11 November, 2008 and of Sir Charles Colthurst of 8 September 2003 in curatorial file); by descent to Sir Richard St. John Jefferyes Colthurst, 8th Bt., Blarney Castle, Cork, Ireland; sold Sotheby’s, 27 February 1952, lot 141, to David M. Koester, New York. Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., New York, by 1956 [it is referred to, but not included in, the Portland, Oregon, exhibition catalogue]; Colnaghi’s, London, by 1969 [see Colnaghi 1969, no. 18]; sold to AIC, May 1970.

The Continence of Scipio

Sebastiano Ricci

c. 1706

Accession Number

33249

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

140 × 182 cm (55 × 71 1/2 in.); Framed: 165.1 × 209.6 cm (65 × 82 1/2 in.)

Classification

oil on canvas

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Preston O. Morton Memorial Fund