François Boucher: Angelica and Medoro (1763)

(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA)

A painting by the French artist François Boucher (1703-1770). Angelica and Medoro are two characters from the 16th-century Italian epic Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (First published in 1516). In the book Angelica is the daughter of Galafrone, the king of "Cathay", or "China". Although various knights want to marry her, she eventually falls in love with an ordinary North African soldier named Medoro. Wounded in a battle with Scottish knights, Medoro is found by Angelica who takes him to a shepherd's hut, and nurses him there, falling in love with him in the process. As a symbol of their love, the couple carve their names in a tree and depart to Cathay. Painting from 1763.