PInabello is Drawn to the Light from Merlin's Cave
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.The subject of this drawing had long been identified as the climactic moment in canto 23 of Orlando Furioso, when Orlando realizes that his beloved Angelica has fallen in love with a Saracen soldier, having found their names inscribed on a rock. More recently, however, it has been reidentified as a scene from canto 2, in which Pinabello, a cowardly knight in Charlemagne’s army, is drawn toward the light streaming from the wizard Merlin’s lair. The sheet displays a virtuosic deployment of wash; a flourish of squiggles denotes the knight’s horse, as well as the soft masses of foliage in which he and his horse are embedded.
Artwork Details
- Title: PInabello is Drawn to the Light from Merlin's Cave
- Artist: Jean Honoré Fragonard (French, Grasse 1732–1806 Paris)
- Date: ca. 1780-85
- Medium: Brush and brown wash over black chalk
- Dimensions: 15 1/4 × 9 7/8 in. (38.7 × 25.1 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, Thaw Collection (2001.61:5)
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints