The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

The Death of Dido

The Death of Dido

1679
(Italian, 1610–1662)
(Flemish, 1679)
Overall: 414 x 466.5 cm (163 x 183 11/16 in.)

Did You Know?

Depicting the tragic love story of Dido and Aeneas, this tapestry is one of eight gifted to the museum for display in the armor court.

Description

Driven by despair, and to her sister's dismay, Dido throws herself onto a pyre of Aeneas's bed and clothes and pierces herself with his sword. Moved by pity, Jupiter's wife, Juno, sends Iris from heaven to cut a lock of Dido's hair and sacrifice it to the underworld so that Dido may die. Aeneas's fleet sails away in the distance.
  • before 1695-1899
    Barberini Family, Rome, Italy
    1899-1915
    Charles M. Ffoulke (1849-1909), Washington, D.C.
    1909-before 1915
    Mitchell Samuels of French & Company (1880-1959), New York, NY, sold to Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss
    before 1915-1915
    Mrs. Francis F. Prentiss (1865-1944), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1915-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • W. M. M. "Gothic Art." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 6, no. 4 (1919): 67-70. Mentioned: p. 70 www.jstor.org
    BREMER-DAVID, CHARISSA. "French & Company and American Collections of Tapestries, 1907-1959." Studies in the Decorative Arts 11, no. 1 (2003): 38-68. 40663064
  • Tapestry restoration 1. Gaspard De Wit/Koninklijke Manufactuur van Wandtapijten n.v (August 19, 1997-August 11, 1998).
  • {{cite web|title=The Death of Dido|url=false|author=Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, Michael Wauters|year=1679|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1915.79.8