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| Title | The Death of Dido | |
| Collection | Victoria Art Gallery, Bath | |
| Artist | After Guercino (Italian painter and draftsman, 1591-1666) | |
| Date Earliest | possibly about 1800 | |
| Date Latest | probably about 1900 | |
| Description | This is a copy after The Death of Dido by Guercino now in the Galleria Spada, Rome. In the centre of the composition Dido is shown richly attired and crowned, as she lies outstretched on the pyre, impaled through her chest by Aeneas' sword. Her sister Anna is to her left, hands outstretched in horror. Other figures at left and right regard the dying queen with grief. Aeneas' fleet may be seen on the distant sea, as Cupid flies away to the top right. The painting forms a pair with the copy of Guido Reni's The Abduction of Helen (BATVG:P:1907.3). | |
| Current Accession Number | BATVG:P:1907.4 | |
| Former Accession Number | A82 | |
| Subject | mythology (Virgil, Aeneid, Dido, Aeneas, Cupid); figure | |
| Measurements | 250 x 310 cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on canvas | |
| Acquisition Details | Given by Sir Henry Hoare Bart, Stourhead, Wilts, 1907 | |
| Publications | Wright, C., Old Master Paintings in Britain: An Index of Continental Old Master Paintings executed before c.1800 in Public Collections in the United Kingdom, London, 1976, p. 102; Sloman, S., Victoria Art Gallery: Concise Catalogue of Paintings and Drawings, Bath, 1991, p. 47; Catalogue of Paintings at Guildhall, The Assembly Rooms and Pump Room , Bath, Bath Museums Service, Bath, 1985, p. 9, cat. 25. | |
| Notes | Donated to the Victoria Art Gallery with its pair, and The Judgement of Midas by Sébastien Bourdon (now lost). Until 1997, the National Trust believed these works had perished in a fire at Stourhead in 1902, but Hoare had donated the works to Victoria Art Gallery perhaps because they no longer fitted the saloon as it was rebuilt after the fire. | |
| Rights Owner | Victoria Art Gallery, Bath | |
| Author | Dr Susan Steer | |