Angelica and Medoro

Angelica and Medoro was a popular theme for Romantic painters, composers and writers from the sixteenth until the nineteenth century.[1] Angelica and Medoro are two characters from the siwteenth-century Italian epic Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Angelica was an Asian princess at the court of Charlemagne who fell in love with the Saracen or Moor knight Medoro, and eloped with him to China. While in the original work, Orlando was the main character, many adaptations focused purely or mainly on the love between Angelica and Medoro, with the favourite scenes in paintings being Angelica nursing Medoro, and Angelica carving their names into a tree, a scene which was the theme of at least 25 paintings between 1577 and 1825.[2]

Contents

List of artists depicting Angelica and Medoro

Gallery

List of authors writing about Angelica and Medoro

List of composers writing about Angelica and Medoro

Libretto by Andrea Salvadori

Libretto by Metastasio

Libretto by Leopoldo de Villati

Libretto by Carlo Vedova

Libretto by Gaetano Sertor

Other

Notes

Further reading