A IMPRESSIVE AND VIBRANT MYTHICAL FLEMISH TAPESTRY SHOWING A SCENE FROM THE AENEID,

early to mid 18th century, 338cm x 243cm

Footnotes

Provenance: Property of a Lady

Literary sources:
The story of Aeneas' return to the fleet is rarely depicted as told in the Aeneid Book IV. Virgil describes how Dido faints upon hearing that her lover is leaving Carthage but in the tradition of Western Art, she is typically shown standing or sitting on a throne. Here, the artist has shown her exactly as Virgil described her:

His medium dictis sermonem abrumpit, et auras
aegra fugit, seque ex oculis avertit et aufert,
linquens multa metu cunctantem et multa parantem
dicere. Suscipiunt famulae, conlapsaque membra
marmoreo referunt thalamo stratisque reponunt.
At pius Aeneas, quamquam lenire dolentem
solando cupit et dictis avertere curas,
multa gemens magnoque animum labefactus amore,
iussa tamen divom exsequitur, classemque revisit.

Abruptly, she stopped mid speech, sick at heart she fled,
turning herself away from Aneneas' gaze, as she left, he tried fearfully
to talk and reassure her but in vain.
Her attendants bore her away to her chamber as she fainted
So that she might rest her weary limbs.
But Aeneas, mindful of his duty, however much he wished to turn to her
and console such intense misery with words of comfort,
even though his soul was heavy with love for her,
nothing would persuade him away from the divine task in hand.
And so he resumed command of the fleet.

Literature: T.C Williams, Virgil, The Aeneidl Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, 1910