The Continence of Scipio (Batoni)

The Continence of Scipio is a 1771 history painting by the Italian artist Pompeo Batoni. It depicts a scene from the Siege of Carthage during the Second Punic War when Scipio Africanus, a general of the Roman Republic, refused to accept a ransom for an aristocratic female prisoner and released her to her fiancée. The story of Scipio's clemency is told by Livy and has been a popular subject for artists.

Although best-known for his portrait paintings of Grand Tourists, the Rome-based Batoni also produced scenes from religious and classical history. The style of the painting indicates his shift in his later career towards a more painterly form of classicism. The painting was commissioned by Count Shuvalov in 1768 on behalf of Catherine the Great for a sum of around 1,700 scudi. The Empress also commissioned a pendant Thetis Takes Achilles from the Centaur Chiron. Today both works are in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.