COYPEL, Antoine
(b. 1661, Paris, d. 1722, Paris)

The Aeneid: Aeneas and Achates Appearing to Dido

1715-17
Oil on canvas, 390 x 570 cm
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Antoine Coypel's patron since 1701, Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans, the future Regent, commissioned him to decorate the Grande Galerie of the Palais Royal, Paris. Antoine chose the Story of Aeneas, executing the sketches in 1702. He carried out the ceiling decorations, representing the Assembly of the Gods, in 1703, and the entire ceiling, with its six additional paintings placed in the springing of the vault, was completed in 1705. This ambitious decorative scheme no longer exists but is known through engravings, Coypel's preparatory drawings (Paris, Louvre) and an oil sketch (Angers, Musée des Beaux-Arts).

In 1715 he completed the Galerie d'Enée at the Palais Royal; this consisted of seven wall canvases on martial or otherwise dramatic themes from the Story of Aeneas (Paris, Louvre; Arras, Musés des Beaux-Arts; Montpellier, Musée Fabre), rendered in a spirit quite different from his earlier work.