Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
The Descent of Aeneas into Hell
(Renaissance Europe )
Over sixty plaques picturing scenes of the "Aeneid," the great epic poem by the Roman poet Virgil that recounts the wanderings of the trojan prince Aeneas are known. Seven are in the Walters collection. The series was probably commissioned to be set in the wainscoting of a small room, perhaps the study of a wealthy man with a classcial education. At the upper right of this plaque Aeneas waits with the Cumean Sibyl for Charon's barge, which will take him across the river Acheron to the entrance of the Underworld, where he will visit his father, Anchises. The mouth of Hell is represented in the gothic manner as the head of a monster.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
Anatole Demidoff, Prince of San Donato [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Paris, March 17, 1870, lot 464; Emil Rey, New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, April 1, 1902, by purchase [J. Seligmann as agent]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Geographies
France, Limoges (Place of Origin)
Measurements
H: 8 7/8 x W: 7 15/16 in. (22.5 x 20.1 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1902
Location in Museum
Not on view
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
44.205
