The Death of Sophonisba is an oil on canvas painting of by Italian painter Giambattista Pittoni, from 1716-1720. It depicts the episode of the suicide of Sophonisba. It is held at the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow.Pushkhin Museum, Italian Art
History It was created originally in Venice - a sketch or smaller copy was bought by the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in 1723. It was bought for the Hermitage Museum in 1773 by the court cellist G. Dal Olio, then placed in the Tauride Palace. It was auctioned by Tsar Nicholas I in 1854 and bought by E.T. Zarudnoi-Cavos, then bought back by the Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, in 1918. It was finally transferred to its present home at the Pushkin Museum, in Moscow, in 1930. Its pair a Semiramis by the same artist, was in the Nikaelov collection in Paris before being bought by the Pushkin Museum in 1853. Irina Artemʹeva, Giuseppe Bergamini, Giuseppe Pavanello, Capolavori nascosti dell'Ermitage: dipinti veneti del Sei e Settecento da Pietroburgo, Electa, 1998, (ISBN 8843565834)
Bibliography Antichità viva, Volume 32, Edam, 1993 Franca Zava Boccazzi, Giambattista Pittoni, ed. Alfieri, 1979 N. Pozza, 'Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte', Volume 21, Istituto di storia dell'arte (Fondazione "Giorgio Cini"), 1997 F. Apolloni and M. Tazzoli, Antologia Di Belle Arti, 2000
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