This cup is supported by a figure of Mucius Scaevola, a legendary hero who attempted to free Rome from a siege by the Etruscans. When he failed and was captured he plunged his hand into a burning brazier to show that he did not fear torture. Mucius Scaevola was portrayed a number of times in sixteenth-century German works, as a symbol of patience and constancy, whose self-sacrifice prefigured that of Christ.