Dido and Aeneas Going to the Hunt
Artist
Joshua Shaw
(English, 1776 - 1860)
Date1831
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 36 1/2 x 49 1/4 x 4in. (92.7 x 125.1 x 10.2cm)
Overall: 26 1/8 x 38 1/2in. (66.4 x 97.8cm)
Overall: 26 1/8 x 38 1/2in. (66.4 x 97.8cm)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Terms
Object number60.197
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightNo known copyright restrictions.
Label TextIn the early nineteenth-century landscape paintings depicting mythological themes were considered "high art." In this painting Dido, a Phoenician princess and queen of the great African city of Carthage, and Aeneas, a shipwrecked Trojan warrior fleeing the sack of Troy, are depicted on horses in the lower right corner of the painting's sunlit landscape. The legendary port city of Carthage appears in the middle distance. Nature--brooding and sensual--frames the scene. On the far left, within the shadows and sheltered by trees, is a statue of two lovers caught in a kiss. In the center of the composition, two young women watch a pair of dancers. Nearby, amid a gold urn and plates, sunlight shines through a glass vase filled with ruby red wine. The peacefulness of the scene shows no signs of the outcome of the Roman poet Virgil's tragic love story, as narrated in the "Aeneid," when Aeneas leaves Carthage to found the city of Rome prompting Dido, heartbroken and alone, to commit suicide.
Sandra Vázquez
Diversity Intern, 1997
