拍品专文
More than 160 drawings by Fragonard illustrating Ariosto's Orlando Furioso are known, and among them 137 drawings come from the same album. Hippolyte Walferdin is said to have bought the drawings from Fragonard's heirs in the 19th Century, but the provenance is untraced before the series entered his collection.
The purpose of the series is not known. They were obviously not intended to be engraved: unlike the drawings of the Contes of La Fontaine which are very precisely drawn, the Ariosto drawings are more sketchy, and could not be used by engravers. The presence of wash on most of the drawings excludes the possibility that they were to be counterproofed and reworked, as was the case for the La Fontaine series.
Fragonard closely followed the Italian text and, instead of combining different scenes in one image as his predecessors had done, he clearly separated every episode. But of the 46 canti, he illustrated only the first fifteen, with the exception of the fifth canto, and illustrated very few of the remaining thirty. It is not clear whether he abandoned the project or whether a number of drawings have been lost.
The other works which Fragonard illustrated include La Fontaine's Contes, in three different series, the largest existing one comprising 57 drawings, and Don Quixote for which there are thirty extant drawings similar in handling to the Ariosto series.
The series has been dated to the 1780s (E. Mongan et al., op. cit.) by comparison with the La Fontaine drawings of the 1770s. The dating was confirmed by Pierre Rosenberg quoting a text of Théophile Fragonard, the grandson of Jean-Honoré '...l'on peut dire qu'il survécut 25 ans à son public car il avait 75 ans en 1806...C'est dans ce temps là qu'il fit plusieurs centaines de dessins sur le poème de 'Roland furieux...', P. Rosenberg, Fragonard, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1987, p. 508.
Orlando Furioso, an epic poem, was published by Lodovico Ariosto in 1516, but was revised a number of times right up to his death in 1532. Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, who falls in love with the Christian Angelica goes mad on learning of her marriage to Medoro, a Saracen. Numerous scenes involving fights or stories of love between pagans and Christians are described in this poem. The story was particularly popular in France around 1780, when a new translation by d'Ussieux was published.
The present drawing illustrates Canto IV: Bradamante tries to catch the winged horse Frontino, but Ruggiero escapes into the air with the horse. With the help of his spurs and his pointed feet, Ruggiero rises toward the sky 'more weightless than the falcon', while Bradamante looks helplessly at him.
The purpose of the series is not known. They were obviously not intended to be engraved: unlike the drawings of the Contes of La Fontaine which are very precisely drawn, the Ariosto drawings are more sketchy, and could not be used by engravers. The presence of wash on most of the drawings excludes the possibility that they were to be counterproofed and reworked, as was the case for the La Fontaine series.
Fragonard closely followed the Italian text and, instead of combining different scenes in one image as his predecessors had done, he clearly separated every episode. But of the 46 canti, he illustrated only the first fifteen, with the exception of the fifth canto, and illustrated very few of the remaining thirty. It is not clear whether he abandoned the project or whether a number of drawings have been lost.
The other works which Fragonard illustrated include La Fontaine's Contes, in three different series, the largest existing one comprising 57 drawings, and Don Quixote for which there are thirty extant drawings similar in handling to the Ariosto series.
The series has been dated to the 1780s (E. Mongan et al., op. cit.) by comparison with the La Fontaine drawings of the 1770s. The dating was confirmed by Pierre Rosenberg quoting a text of Théophile Fragonard, the grandson of Jean-Honoré '...l'on peut dire qu'il survécut 25 ans à son public car il avait 75 ans en 1806...C'est dans ce temps là qu'il fit plusieurs centaines de dessins sur le poème de 'Roland furieux...', P. Rosenberg, Fragonard, exhib. cat., Paris, Grand Palais, 1987, p. 508.
Orlando Furioso, an epic poem, was published by Lodovico Ariosto in 1516, but was revised a number of times right up to his death in 1532. Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, who falls in love with the Christian Angelica goes mad on learning of her marriage to Medoro, a Saracen. Numerous scenes involving fights or stories of love between pagans and Christians are described in this poem. The story was particularly popular in France around 1780, when a new translation by d'Ussieux was published.
The present drawing illustrates Canto IV: Bradamante tries to catch the winged horse Frontino, but Ruggiero escapes into the air with the horse. With the help of his spurs and his pointed feet, Ruggiero rises toward the sky 'more weightless than the falcon', while Bradamante looks helplessly at him.