The suicide of Dido: Dido seated on a pyre surrounded by distressed servants. Etching by G.C. Testa after P. Testa.

  • Testa, Pietro, 1611-1650.
Date:
1600-1699
Reference:
2474356i
  • Pictures

About this work

Description

Dido, legendary daughter of a king of Tyre. Her husband was murdered by her brother Pygmalion, now King of Tyre, and Dido escaped to Libya, where she founded Carthage. The shipwrecked Aeneas is brought to Dido by Venus and Dido falls in love with him. After a while Aeneas departs, warned by Mercurius to leave Carthage: Dido sits on a pyre, built as though for an offering, and kills herself with the sword of Aeneas. Iris descends at the behest of Juno to pluck a hair from Dido's head and thus end her life

Publication/Creation

[Rome?] : [publisher not identified]

Physical description

1 print : etching ; image 30.8 x 46 cm

Contributors

Edition

[State without lettering].

References note

Not in Adam Bartsch, Le peintre graveur, vol. 20

Reference

Wellcome Collection 2474356i

Creator/production credits

A picture of a suicide by an artist (Pietro Testa) who killed himself

Type/Technique

Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

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