Sophonisba Drinking the Poison

Sophonisba Drinks Poison is a painting by the Veronese painter Giovan Francesco Caroto kept at the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona. It appears that the museum bought it in 1882 from the art dealer Luigi Montini; there is no news prior to this event relating to its provenance.The majority of critics identify in the subject represented in the painting the Carthaginian noblewoman Sophonisba in the act of drinking the poison to avoid living as a slave to the Romans; however, since there are no certain references in the representation, others have proposed alternative solutions, such as Cleopatra or Artemisia. Glimpsing in the pictorial style of references to the prototype of the Lombard Renaissance of Giampietrino, it is believed that the work may have been painted in 1523, on the occasion of a stay in Casale Monferrato of the painter where, as some documents found attest, he had gone to dispense some land assets acquired during his previous stay .