Existing comment:
Waistcoat (France), 1785–95
This handsome waistcoat depicts Dido and Aeneas in a scene from Didon, a popular 1783 opera by the composer Niccolò Piccini (Italian, 1728–1800) based on Virgil's Aeneid. Set in the 9th-century-BCE city of Carthage, the two main characters stand before a low-latticed wall topped with ornamental urns filled with flowers. The setting evokes the late-18th-century interest in classical forms of antiquity as well as less formal garden settings. |