A Sophonisba by Pieter Lastman?

This essay brings an overlooked design into the Lastman discourse: Sophonisba Receiving the Poison. It is known from a drawing lost in World War II, and a rare etching (Figs. 1 and 2). Gustav Pauli published the drawing as by Pieter Lastman. ¹ In 1986, Christian Tümpel attributed the drawing to Venant after Lastman, and discussed it in the context of representations of Sophonisba in the seventeenth century. ² The authorship of the drawing may not be resolved easily, although an attribution to Venant is possible. ³ The uncredited etching, in the same direction and size as the drawing, has been variously published as after Lastman, Eeckhout, or Berchem. ⁴ Representing an historical event portrayed at a pivotal moment, the design, regardless of who made these works on paper, conforms most closely to Lastman’s approach. Formally, too, the design relates to Lastman’s work in general as a grouping of three main characters in a stage-like setting, and, in particular, as single figures have counterparts in his extant paintings.