Orlando delivering Olympia from the Sea-monster
Ludovico Carracci (Bologna 1555 - Bologna 1619)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1575 - 1619
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
838 x 1143 mm (33 x 45 in)
Place of origin
Bologna
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108835
Caption
Orlando, an English Christian knight, is coming to the rescue of a maiden by thrusting an anchor into the jaws of an orc. For optimum dramatic effect, the artist has brought together two episodes from the romantic epic work, Orlando furioso (Raging Roland) by the Italian Renaissance poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474 – 1533). Olympia, a Dutch princess, abandoned by her faithless husband, Bireno, was captured by pirates and left on the island of Ebuda from which Orlando freed her. Angelica, the pagan daughter of the King of Cathay, by whom, incidentally, the love-sick Orlando was driven mad, was chained naked to a rock and sacrificed to a sea monster but rescued by the Saracen warrior, Ruggiero.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Orlando delivering Olympia from the Sea-monster by Ludovico Carracci (Bologna 1555 - Bologna 1619). Orlando rescuing Olympia from the sea-monster by fixing a large anchor to its open jaws. The story of this picture is taken from the epic romantic poem of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (10:28). In one of the many dramatic rescues with which the epic is filled, Orlando (or Roland) throws the anchor of his boat into the jaws of the maiden-eating orc, to which Olympia had been exposed after being abandoned by her faithless husband, Bireno, on the island of Ebuda. The picture conflates two episodes, described in cantos X and XI of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, in which Orlando rescues Olympia by untying her from a tree, and Ruggiero frees Angelica from a rock.
Provenance
Bought by the picture dealer, William Kent (fl. 1742-1761), in Italy for Sir Nathaniel Curzon (1726-1804) in 1758 as by Pietro Testa, and not unintelligently attributed by him to Ludovico's cousin, Annibale Carracci; and thence by descent until bought with part of the contents of Kedleston with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1987 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000)
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Makers and roles
Ludovico Carracci (Bologna 1555 - Bologna 1619), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Pietro Testa (Lucca 1611/12 - Rome 1650), artist previously catalogued as by Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560 - Rome 1609), artist