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Angelica Resting Under a Tree, from Orlando Furioso

A work made of pen and brown ink, and brush and brown and gray wash, over graphite, on ivory wove paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of pen and brown ink, and brush and brown and gray wash, over graphite, on ivory wove paper.

Date:

1810/13

Artist:

Felice Giani
Italian, 1758-1823

About this artwork

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.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Felice Giani

Title

Angelica Resting Under a Tree, from Orlando Furioso

Place

Italy (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1810–1813

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.)

Credit Line

Suzanne Searle Dixon Endowment

Reference Number

1991.219

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/113989/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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