Dido and Aeneas

Aeneas, the hero of the Roman poet Virgil’s epic, the Aeneid, is shipwrecked in Carthage on the north coast of Africa. There he begins a doomed love affair with the queen, Dido.

This scene shows the couple embarking upon a hunt within an idyllic landscape. Turner’s vision of the sprawling buildings of Carthage encloses the scene.