Felice Giani
Italian, 1758-1823
Angelica Resting Under a Tree, from Orlando Furioso
INV-1139
Felice Giani
Italian, 1758-18231810/13
Angelica Resting Under a Tree, from Orlando Furioso
Felice Giani Italian, 1758-1823 →pen and ink drawingsdrawings (visual works)
Date
1810/13
Medium
Pen and brown ink, and brush and brown and gray wash, over graphite, on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
34.7 × 51.5 cm (13 11/16 × 20 5/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Suzanne Searle Dixon Endowment
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.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
The Three Fates
Felice Giani Italian, 1758-1823
Francesco Rosaspina's Drawing School
Giulio Tomba (Italian, 1780-1840) after Felice Giani (Italian, 1758-1823)
Polyphemus Throwing Boulders at the Fleeing Aeis and Galatea (recto); Polyphemus Playing His Reed Pipes for Galatea (verso)
Pobably Felice Giani (Italian, 1758-1823) or possibly Fortunato Durati (Italian, 1787-1863) or possibly Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo (Spanish, 1612-1667)
