Artwork Page for Angelica and Medoro

Details / Information for Angelica and Medoro

Angelica and Medoro

c. 1570

Giorgio Ghisi

(Italian, 1520–1582)
designer

after Teodoro Ghisi

(Italian, 1536–1601)
Culture
Italy, 16th century
Medium
engraving
Support
Cream(2) laid paper
Measurements
Sheet: 29.6 x 20.9 cm (11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1944.20
Catalogue raisonné
Lewis&Boorsch 43
State
i/iv
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

This scene stems from Ludovico Ariosto’s (1474–1533) 16th-century best-seller Orlando Furioso, an epic poem in which Princess Angelica falls in love with Medoro, a soldier she nurses back to health. They are shown here declaring their union by carving their names “on every stone or shady tree.” Like the poet Ariosto, who updated a medieval chivalric story with classical themes, Teodoro and his brother, Giorgio, portrayed the lovers in the popular antique style.
A vertically oriented engraving in black ink with fine, cross-hatched lines depicts a man wearing a draped cloak seated beneath a leafy canopy, reaching up to carve names into a tree trunk. A nude woman sits on his lap, back to us, looking toward him. To the right, a winged child raises a torch. Beyond them, a bridge spans a river toward a distant city. Foliage and an inscribed tablet fill the foreground.

Angelica and Medoro

c. 1570

Giorgio Ghisi, Teodoro Ghisi

(Italian, 1520–1582), (Italian, 1536–1601)
Italy, 16th century

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