Angelica and Medoro

Angelica and Medoro

Angelica and Medoro

Artist:Jacques Blanchard (French, 1600–1638)
Date:possibly early 1630s
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:With added strip at top 47 7/8 x 69 1/4 in. (121.6 x 175.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of George A. Hearn, 1906

The canvas illustrates a passage from Ludovico Ariosto's (1474–1533) epic poem Orlando Furioso (XIX:36), in which the two lovers engrave their names in the bark of a tree. Because the surface is worn, the letters are no longer visible. In the early 1630s Blanchard was decorating the galleries of various private houses in Paris with such narrative pictures in series. The soft lighting and languid nudity suggest the influence of sixteenth-century Venetian painting.

Provenance
Philippe Vignon, Paris (until d. 1701; posthumous inventory, September 13, 1701: "Item, un tableau original de Blanchard le père représentant Angélique et Médor, de cinq pieds de large sur quatre de haut avec sa bordure dorée, estimé cinquante livres"); ?Edme Bouchardon, Paris (until 1762; sale, Paris, November 1762, no. 13, as "Angélique et Médor," by Blanchard, 3 1/2 x 5 pieds [44 3/4 x 63 3/4 in.]); ?Verrier (until 1776; sale, Paris, November 14, postponed to November 18, 1776, no. 58, as "Angélique et Médor," by Laurent de La Hyre, 4 pieds 4 pouces x 5 pieds 6 pouces [55 1/8 x 70 1/2 in.]); Poullain, Paris (until 1780; sale, Le Brun, Paris, March 15ff., 1780, no. 105, as "Angélique et Médor," for 700 livres to "comte d'Orsé" [sic]); comte d'Orsay, Paris (1780–90; his sale, Basan, Paris, April 14, 1790, no. 2, as "Angélique et Médor," for 200 livres); [T. J. Blakeslee, New York, until 1904; his sale, American Art Galleries, New York, April 7–8, 1904, no. 71, as "Venus and Adonis"]; George A. Hearn, New York (until 1906)

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