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Angelica is the daughter of a king of Cathay in Orlando Furioso, by the Italian poet Ariosto (1474-1533), a romantic epic poem about the conflict between Christians and Saracens at the time of Charlemagne. Angelica was loved by several knights, Christian and pagan, among them the Christian hero Orlando (Roland). He was maddened (furioso) with grief and jealousy because she became the lover of, and eventually married, the Moor Medoro.
In this painting, in front of a landscape, Medoro carves the name of his beloved onto a tree. It was the discovery of these proofs of their love that caused Orlando's jealous rage.
This subject was very popular in Italian Baroque painting.
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