Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Lavinia.
The gallery
Latinus Offering his Daughter Lavinia to Aeneas in Matrimony
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1753–1754
Tiepolo’s Copenhagen canvas (SMK KMS4201) places Lavinia at the hinge of Virgil’s Italian war: Latinus offers her hand to Aeneas while Latium’s future tips toward Troy. Venetian light makes the bride the quiet prize of the Aeneid’s second half — not Shakespeare’s mutilated namesake, but the Latin princess who becomes Rome’s stepmother.