Andrea Mantegna, working in the Mantuan court of Francesco and Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, executed a simulated bronze portrait of Dido, legendary queen of Carthage, which seems to belie the traditional image of the lover who took her own life in desperation when abandoned by Aeneas. This work has received little scholarly attention as interpretations have always been inextricably linked with Virgil's portrayal of the tragic heroine in the Aeneid.
In fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italy, however, a second version of Dido's life and death was widely acknowledged. This article explores the hypothesis that Mantegna's heroine died upholding her principles rather than as a result of having compromised them.