The Death of Dido

An engraving done by the engraver Robert Strange (1721-1792) of a painting by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591-1666) titled The Death of Dido. The inscription reads 'Accipite hanc animam meque his exsolvite curis' which translates from the Latin as 'Take this soul and release me from these cares'. The work was created in 1776 by Strange. The scene depicts Dido, the Queen of Carthage, she built a pyre to burn her husband Aeneas' belongings and an effigy of him after he abandoned her. Cupid is seen fleeing the scene and Dido in impaled on her husband’s sword. Under the pyre on the right-hand sight the light of the newly created fire can be seen and, in the distance, Aeneas, the hero of the Trojan war on his way to Rome.