The Death of Dido

[2] This would have made Guercino's work complete Reni's anti-Spanish message, theoretically (had the plan come to fruition) warning Maria de' Medici herself – she was a known appeaser of Madrid, setting her against the policies of her son Louis XIII and his minister Cardinal Richelieu and leading to her downfall, imprisonment in Compiègne and finally to exile.

Spada's message from the pope invited her to reflect of the error of trusting in Philip IV's loyalty and that it might lead her into ruin just as Aeneas' betrayal had led to Dido's downfall.

When the latter work reached France but could not be collected by Maria, it was instead taken on by marquess Louis Phélypeaux de La Vrillière, who put it in his now-lost gallery in Paris and commissioned a pendant by Pietro da Cortona showing Caesar Giving Cleopatra the Throne of Egypt.

[3] That work shows a deposed queen placed back upon her throne, not as a polemic against Louis and Richelieu but as a prediction of national unity, hoping for a similar rehabilitation for Maria who – for better or worse – had been a major figure in recent French history.

[4] Guercino chooses the moment of tragedy in the account in Aeneid Book IV where Dido's sister Anna (in red and blue to the left) returns from Aeneas with his final refusal to stay.

[4] That impression is underlined by the uninvolved man on the far right who looks towards the viwer, seemingly in the role of the festaiuolo or reveller in Renaissance theatre, a character who stood in a scene without being involved in it and acted as a 'trait d'union' or point of contact between actors and audience.