Dido, having been abandoned by Aeneas, commits suicide on a pyre composed of his armour and his gifts to her, in her palace in Carthage. The details in this painting do not follow exactly the story as told in Virgil's 'Aeneid' (IV: 504ff).

Some figures come from a Dürer print ('Five Lansquenets and an Oriental on Horseback') which probably dates from the mid-1490s, and the influence of Mantegna is also evident.

This painting was probably a panel from a 'cassone'. This is usually accepted as a work by Liberale da Verona.