The Continence of Scipio

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

c. 1706

Sebastiano Ricci (Italian, 1659–1734)

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.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Sebastiano Ricci
Title: The Continence of Scipio
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1701–1711
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 140 × 182 cm (55 × 71 1/2 in.); Framed: 165.1 × 209.6 cm (65 × 82 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Preston O. Morton Memorial Fund
Reference Number: 1970.106
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/33249/manifest.json

Arthur Young’s Tour of Ireland (1776-1779), ed. Arthur Wollaston Hutton, vol. I, London, 1892: 387-8.
Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., exhib. cat., 1956, p. 34, under no. 43.
“Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions,” Burlington Magazine, 111 (1969): 695.
“Notable Works of Art now on the Market,” Burlington Magazine, 111 (1969 supplement), pl. lxi.
L. Winer, “Two Shows Span the Centuries,” Chicago Tribune September 16, 1970. Section 2, p. 1.
La Chronique des Arts. No. 1225 (February 1971): 79.
J. Butler, “The American way with art” The Connoisseur, 176, no. 708 (1971): 132.
J. Daniels. Sebastiano Ricci. Sussex, 1976, no. 73.
J. Daniels. L’opera completa di Sebastiano Ricci. Milan, 1976, no. 194.
Annalisa Scarpa, Sebastiano Ricci, Milan 2006, p. 175, no. 85.
William Laffan, “Colonial Ireland: Artistic Crossroads” in Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840, exh. cat., Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 2015, p. 29, cat. 101, fig. 20.

New York, NY, Finch College Museum of Art, A Loan Exhibition of Venetian Baroque Paintings, 1964, no. 49.
Memphis, TN, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery / Lexington, KY, University of Kentucky Art Gallery, Sebastiano and Marco Ricci in America, December 19, 1965 - January 23, 1966 / February 13 - March 6, 1966, no. 8.
Norfolk, VA, Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., December 2, 1967 - May 15, 1968, no. 51.
London, P & D Colnaghi & Co., Ltd., Paintings by Old Masters, October 21 - November 7, 1969, no. 18.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840, March 17 - June 7, 2015, no. 101.

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.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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