Angelica and Medoro

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.