Roger Freeing Angelica (Ingres)
Roger Freeing Angelica or Ruggiero Freeing Angelica is an 1819 painting by the French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, inspired by Orlando Furioso by Ariosto. An oil painting on canvas measuring 147 x 199 cm, it is owned by the Louvre.[1] Ingres subsequently painted several variants of the composition.
Subject
Orlando Furioso, a 16th-century epic poem by Ariosto, is the source of the tale of Roger, a knight whose steed is a hippogriff (a legendary creature half horse and half eagle). While riding near Brittany's coast Roger espies a beautiful woman, Angelica, chained to a rock on the Isle of Tears. She has been abducted and stripped naked by barbarians who have left her there as a human sacrifice to a sea monster. As Roger rides to her aid, a great thrashing in the water occurs—it is the monster approaching Angelica. Roger drives his lance between the monster's eyes and rescues Angelica.[2]
Background
Ingres received the commission for the work in 1817 and completed it in 1819.[3] When it was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1819 alongside his Grande Odalisque, the work was criticised for the treatment of Angelica's figure, described by the art historian Théophile Silvestre as "Angelica with goitres" and by the painter Henry de Waroquier as "triple-breasted Angelica". Comte de Blacas, the French ambassador to the Vatican, acquired the painting for King Louis XVIII.[3] It was installed above a doorway in the throne room of Versailles from 1820 until 1823 before being relocated to the Musée du Luxembourg.[3] It was Ingres' first painting to enter a public collection.
Ingres executed the work with his usual care, and many preparatory drawings for the composition and the individual figures exist.
He painted several later versions of the composition, none of which are known to have been commissioned.[4] A reduced copy of the painting in a vertical format was painted sometime before 1839, and eventually acquired by Edgar Degas, who purchased it in 1894.[5] It was later acquired by the National Gallery, London. An 1841 replica, in an oval format, is in the Musée Ingres. A painting of 1859, also in an oval format, repeats the figure of Angelica but nearly eliminates Roger, whose presence is indicated only by his shield visible at the right edge.[6]
In 1819 Ingres painted Perseus and Andromeda (Detroit Institute of Arts), which like Roger Freeing Angelica features a nude woman chained to a rock and a hero slaying a sea monster.[7]
See also
- List of paintings by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
- Roger Freeing Angelica (Böcklin)
Notes
- ^ Base Joconde: Reference no. 000PE001562, French Ministry of Culture. (in French)
- ^ Condon et al. 1983, p. 238.
- ^ a b c Arikha 1986, p. 51.
- ^ Condon et al. 1983, p. 94.
- ^ Dumas 1996, pp. 25, 70.
- ^ Condon et al. 1983, p. 98.
- ^ Detroit Institute of Arts
References
- Arikha, Avigdor (1986). J.A.D. Ingres: Fifty Life Drawings from the Musée Ingres at Montauban. Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts. ISBN 0-89090-036-1
- Condon, Patricia; Cohn, Marjorie B.; Mongan, Agnes (1983). In Pursuit of Perfection: The Art of J.-A.-D. Ingres. Louisville: The J. B. Speed Art Museum. ISBN 0-9612276-0-5
- Dumas, Ann (1996) Degas as a Collector. London: Apollo Magazine. ISBN 1857091310
- Mongan, Agnes; Naef, Dr. Hans (1967). Ingres Centennial Exhibition 1867-1967: Drawings, Watercolors, and Oil Sketches from American Collections. Greenwich, Conn.: Distributed by New York Graphic Society. OCLC 170576
- Radius, Emilio (1968). L'opera completa di Ingres. Milan: Rizzoli. OCLC 58818848
Further reading
- French painting 1774-1830: the Age of Revolution. New York; Detroit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Detroit Institute of Arts. 1975. (see index)
External links
- http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb136042751
- http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=28449
- v
- t
- e
paintings
- The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles (1801)
- Oedipus and the Sphinx (1808)
- Jupiter and Thetis (1811)
- Romulus' Victory Over Acron (1812)
- Virgil reading The Aeneid before Augustus, Livia and Octavia (1812)
- The Dream of Ossian (1813)
- Raphael and La Fornarina (1813)
- Paolo and Francesca (1814–1819)
- Don Pedro of Toledo Kissing Henry IV's Sword (1814)
- Aretino and Charles V's Ambassador (1815)
- Henry IV Receiving the Spanish Ambassador (1817)
- The Death of Leonardo da Vinci (1818)
- Roger Freeing Angelica (1819)
- The Dauphin's Entry Into Paris (1821)
- The Vow of Louis XIII (1824)
- The Apotheosis of Homer (1827)
- The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian (1834)
- The Illness of Antiochus (1840)
- The Odyssey (1850)
- Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII (1854)
- The Half-Length Bather (1807)
- The Valpinçon Bather (1808)
- La Dormeuse de Naples (1809)
- Grande Odalisque (1814)
- The Source (c 1820)
- Odalisque with Slave (1842)
- Venus Anadyomene (1848)
- The Turkish Bath (1863)
- Bonaparte, First Consul (1804)
- Portrait of Philibert Rivière (1805)
- Portrait of Marie-Françoise Rivière (1805–06)
- Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière (1806)
- Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne (1806)
- La Belle Zélie (1806)
- Portrait of Madame Duvaucey (1807)
- Portrait of Charles Marcotte (1810)
- Portrait of Paul Lemoyne (1811)
- Portrait of Madame de Senonnes (1814)
- Portrait of Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples (1814)
- Portrait of Madame Jacques-Louis Leblanc (1823)
- Portrait of Madame Marcotte de Sainte-Marie (1826)
- Portrait of Amédée de Pastoret (1826)
- Portrait of Monsieur Bertin (1832)
- Luigi Cherubini and the Muse of Lyric Poetry (1842)
- Portrait of Comtesse d'Haussonville (1845)
- Portrait of Baronne de Rothschild (1848)
- Portrait of Madame Moitessier (1844–1856)
- The Princesse de Broglie (1851–1853)
- Portrait of Madame Ingres (1859)
- Self-Portrait Aged 24 (1806)
- Self-Portrait at Seventy-Eight (1858)
- Antwerp Self-Portrait (1864-1865)