Dido, Queen of Carthage, pictured here in an enamel portrait by the French artisan Leonard Limosin (circa 1505-circa 1575), was the founding ruler of an ancient city-state on the coast of northern Africa. According to Roman historians and the Latin poet Virgil, who embellished Dido’s biography for his epic poem The Aenead, she was born a princess of the Phoenician city of Tyre in the eighth century BCE. Dido was forced to leave Tyre when the king assassinated her husband in an unsuccessful attempt to steal his fortune; she tricked the king into thinking the treasure had been cast into the sea as an offering to her husband’s spirit and escaped by ship with her companions. They landed in North Africa, purchased a small section of land from the Berber king Iarbas, and built a walled city on a headland overlooking a bay. King Iarbas asked Dido to marry him, but she declined, saying that she would never marry again. OnedayAeneas, aheroof the fallencityofTroy, sailed into Carthage’sharbor andasked forprovisions andmaterials to repair his storm-battered ships. Thinking that an alliance with theTrojanwarriors couldbe toher advantage,Didooffered the resources of her kingdom.While theworkwas underway she fell in lovewith Aeneas, and at first he reciprocated her affections, butwhen the repairs to his shipswere completedhe set sail to fulfill hisdestinyas theprogenitorofRome. InLimosin’s portrait Dido has a faraway look in her eyes, as if the rejection of Aeneas has brought her world crashing down. Her rejection of King Iarbas hasmade Carthage’s borders insecure, the peoplehavequestionedher leadershipandgood judgment,and now this Trojan refugeewhoowes everything toher hospitality hasdeclinedher offer of an alliance andabandonedher. As Aeneas’ shipsdepart,Didoswears thather spiritwill haunthim forever. Limosin was born about the year 1505 in Limoges, France, a town known for its enamelers and goldsmiths. His artistic influences were the French painter and sculptor Jean Cousin, the German engraver Albrecht Durer, and the Italian painters Francesco Primaticcio, Rosso Fiorentino, Giulio Romano, and Andrea Solari. Much of Limosin’s work, including plaques, tableware, jewelry boxes, and decorative paintings, was produced for the royal residence of Fontainebleau, a hunting lodge renovated by King Francis I beginning in 1528. Like other master craftsmen of the era, Limosin had a large workshop operating under the guild system, with apprentices and journeymen who shared tools, materials, and working space. Limosin’s special talent was making enamel portraits of his patron and other members of the royal family. These portraits were typically installed in the paneling of small rooms, such as the wainscoting of the Gallery at Fontainebleau. King Francis was so impressed by the artistry of Limosin’s enamel portraits that he appointed him peintre ordinaire de la chamber du Roi. The art of enamel portraiture was developed in the Renaissance era to create durable reproductions of oil paintings. Tomake an enamel portrait, thin layers of glasswere applied in the formofpastesorpowders toacopperbaseandfired in a kiln to fuse the enamel to the substrate; this process was repeatedmany times for eachpiece to buildup colors and add dimension to the features. To model the features of the face, the enameler first spread a grounding layer of white enamel within theoutlinesof the chinandneck, fired theportrait, and let it cool. Then he smoothed the base layer with a grinding stone and applied a placing layer of enamel in a contrasting color, which in Limosin’s portrait of Dido has a purplish hue. The placing layer was sculpted to create shadows and highlights, and thepiecewas fired again.After cooling, the shaded areaswere further refinedwith the grinding stone, and a layer of grisaille white enamel was added. The formula for grisaille white was closely held by the enamelers of Limoges; it could be applied more thinly than other enamels to give the portrait precise outlines and subtle shadings reminiscent of portraits in oil. Successive layers of grisaillewhitewere laiddown to heighten the planes and contours of the face. In Limosin’s portrait ofDido,whitehighlights appearon the forehead, chin, cheekbones, and the bridge of the nose. As in other Limoges paintings, the orientation of the highlights suggests that the source of illumination is coming from the top left of the picture. Dido’s jeweled coiffure is characteristic of the fashion of 16th-centuryFrenchportraits. The luster of the jewels around her neck and in her hair was enhanced by embedding small sheets of gold foil or silver leaf called paillons in a coat of clear enamel. The best evidence of the use of a paillon in this painting is thename“DIDO”scratched intoblueenamelwithanengraving needle to allow the gold to show through. Dido never forgave Aeneas for abandoning her. In despair, she cursed his descendants, foretelling endless conflict between the Roman and Carthaginian empires that culminated in thePunicWars. Then sheascendeda funeral pyre, fell on the sword of Aeneas, and died. The pyre was lit and the smoke drifted out toward the harbor as her lover sailed away. According to Virgil, when Aeneas reached Italy and descended into the underworld to learn his destiny, he saw the shade of Dido wandering the Fields of Mourning. He expressedhis regret and tried to speakwithher, butDido turned away.