Angelique et Roger sur l’Hippogriffe

From the model by Antoine-Louis Barye.

This is another sketch from my visit to the museum (see below). When I first saw it, I thought of Persephone being snatched by Whatshisface—there are so many abduction scenes to pick from! But in fact it's the story of Roger and Angelique, found in the 1516 adventure poem Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. (As you can tell by all the o’s, he was Italian.) Orlando Furioso (meaning something like “Mad Orlando”) was written as a continuation to another poet’s Orlando Innamorato (“Orlando in Love”), and seems to contain so many episodic curlicues and narrative rabbit-trails that a clean summary is quite impossible. In this part, the African knight Ruggiero (Roger, en français) saves Angelica (Angelique), the pagan princess of Cathay, from a forced sacrifice to a sea monster known as the Orc. Yes, this is the same situation which faced poor Andromeda, and yes, she is also a favorite for artists who want to paint a pretty naked lady chained to a rock. (One wonders if sacrifices didn’t work if the person were clothed.)

You can also see Roger and his hippogriff in the shadowy forest, as shown by Gustave Doré (who lived in Strasbourg!); or Roger saving the coiffed and soft-skinned Angelica from the nasty monster, as imagined by Ingres.