The Tempest, Act I: Ferdinand and Miranda

Various artists/makers

Not on view

On a rocky shore, Miranda catches sight of Ferdinand for the first time. Her father Prospero stands beside his daughter as the spirit Ariel plays a lyre, and the disgruntled Caliban watches at left. Cipriani and Barret's conception of this famous scene from Shakespeare's "Tempest" emphasizes the dramatic coastline in keeping with an established Franco-Italian tradition of landscape painting. The oval shape and small figures suggest a work conceived as part of a decorative scheme in a grand house, the sort of thing that Cipriani often worked on for architects such as Robert Adam.

The Tempest, Act I: Ferdinand and Miranda, Samuel Middiman (British, 1751–1831), Etching

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