Textile Fabrics / A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Church-vestments, Dresses, Silk Stuffs, Needlework and Tapestries, forming that Section of the Museum

by Daniel Rock

1483.

Tapestry Wall-hanging; subject, Æneas and Achates before Dido, at Carthage. Flemish, 17th century.

The passage, in Virgil’s first book of the Æneid, descriptive of Æneas, with the faithful Achates at his side, relating his adventures to Dido, the Carthaginian queen, is here illustrated. The youthful princess, enthroned beneath a cloth of estate, is listening to the Trojan prince before her, and around are her ladies in gay costume, her own being of light blue silk damasked with a large golden flower. As a background we see the port filled with Æneas’s ships, to which countrymen are driving sheep and oxen for their crews. The women are quite of the Flemish type of fat beauty, and the odd head-dress for a man on Achates is remarkable.