Art Institute of Chicago

Angelica Resting Under a Tree, from Orlando Furioso

Felice Giani

Date

1810/13

Medium

Pen and brown ink, and brush and brown and gray wash, over graphite, on ivory wove paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

What at first glance appears to be a landscape is in fact a scene from the enduringly popular chivalric romance, Orlando Furioso (Orlando in Frenzy), first published in 1516 by the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto. One of the poem’s central characters, the beautiful princess Angelica, is being pursued by several enamored knights (one of whom is just visible in the middle distance), and has stopped to rest in a leafy grove beside a brook. Easy to miss, Angelica lies naked in the left foreground spot-lit by a patch of sunlight (really just the exposed white of the paper). Giani’s rapid-fire, staccato pen strokes give the sheet a feeling of vibrant energy and movement akin to the fast pacing of the poem.

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