DOSSI, Dosso
(b. ca. 1490, Ferrara, d. 1542, Ferrara)

Nymph and Satyr

1510-16
Oil on canvas, 58 x 83 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

"Bestial" barely begins to describe this lustful being. A pale female seems particularly out of place in the pagan wild, but if the ring she touches grants invisibility, this may might be Angelica, a heroine of Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto - who mentioned Dossi in his tongue-in-cheek epic.




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