id: 438548 accession number: 2021.2 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2021.2 updated: 2023-03-20 10:12:42.435000 Dido, c. 1525. Aurelio Lombardo (Italian, 1501–1563). Marble; overall: 50 x 26.5 x 14 cm (19 11/16 x 10 7/16 x 5 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 2021.2 title: Dido title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1525 creation date earliest: 1520 creation date latest: 1530 current location: 117A Italian Renaissance creditline: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy technique: marble department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: Sculpture type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Aurelio Lombardo (Italian, 1501–1563) Italian sculptor, 1501-1563 --- measurements: Overall: 50 x 26.5 x 14 cm (19 11/16 x 10 7/16 x 5 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: PVNICA SVM [DIDO ERE]XI QVAE MOENIA BYRSA translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Long Term Loan, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (September – December 2006) --- PROVENANCE Private Collection, England date: footnotes: citations: Henry Duke & Son, Dorchester, England date: June 30, 1988 footnotes: citations: Thomas Agnew & Sons, London, in association with Daniel Katz, Ltd., London date: footnotes: citations: Barbara Piasecka Johnson (1937-2013), Princeton, Sobótka, Poland date: footnotes: citations: [Christie's Sale: Collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson, December, 14, 1999, London, lot 74] date: December, 14, 1999 footnotes: citations: Hester Diamond (1928-2020), New York, NY date: footnotes: citations: [Sotheby's Sale: The Collection of Hester Diamond Part I, January 29, 2021, New York, NY, lot 120] date: January 29, 2021 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2021- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Dido’s nudity and hairstyle are allusions to ancient Greek images of Aphrodite. digital description: Artists customarily portrayed Dido as a forlorn lover abandoned by the Trojan hero, Aeneas, but here she is a conquering queen. Dido draws aside an oxhide curtain, a reference to the mythical founding of Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia, North Africa), when she was given an oxhide to demarcate granted land. By cutting it into thin strips she was able to encircle the future city. Dido was likely created for display in a studiolo, a place of study featuring refined works of art appreciated by humanist scholars and aficionados during the Renaissance. wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Schulz, Anne Markham, and Giammaria Mosca. Giammaria Mosca Called Padovano: A Renaissance Sculptor in Italy and Poland. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. page number: no. 1, p. 61 url: Christie, Manson & Woods. European Sculpture. 1999. page number: lot 74 url: Luchs, A. "The London Woman in Anguish, attributed to Christoforo Solari: Erotic Pathos in a Renaissance Bust," Artibus et Historiae no. 47 (2003). page number: pp. 158, 159, 163 and 172, fig. 12 url: Lombardo, Antonio, and Matteo Ceriana. Gli Este a Ferrara: il camerino di alabastro : Antonio Lombardo e la scultura all'antica. Cinisello Balsamo, Milano: Silvana, 2004. page number: pp. 269 and 271 url: Sarchi, Alessandra. Antonio Lombardo. Venezia: Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, 2008. page number: p. 372, pl. 162 url: Luchs, Alison, Tullio Lombardo, and Adriana Augusti Ruggeri. Tullio Lombardo and Venetian High Renaissance Sculpture. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2009. page number: p. 120 url: Kurkow, Cory. “Defiant Dido: Shaking up the Italian Renaissance sculpture collection.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 3 (Summer 2021): 34-35. page number: Reproduced: P. 35; Mentioned: P. 34. url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2021.2/2021.2_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2021.2/2021.2_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2021.2/2021.2_full.tif