Aeneas in the Underworld, Design for a Fan

Both practical and fashionable, fans were essential accessories for elite European women in the 1700s. Often decorated with elaborate motifs, a fan could reveal information about its wearer. It might expose a woman’s artistic or literary tastes, divulge her politics, or disclose her knowledge of current cultural conversations. The design seen here represents an episode from The Aeneid, a Latin epic poem, suggesting the owner’s interest in recent translations of classical poetry. It could also operate as a metaphor for the Enlightenment: seen entering a cave at right, the hero, Aeneas, travels through the underworld where he faces harrowing challenges and converses with the dead before emerging newly enlightened and victorious.