Eugène Delacroix - Marphise - Walters 3710

In his epic poem Orlando Furioso, Ludovico Ariosto relates how Marphise, the woman warrior, knocks the knight Pinabello off his horse after his lady had mocked Marphise's companion, the old woman Gabrina. In this scene, Pinabello lies on the ground, and his horse gallops off in the distance. The knight's lady, meanwhile, is forced to disrobe and give her fancy clothing to Gabrina. Marphise's horse, undisturbed by the drama, nonchalantly munches on the leaves overhead. Late in life, Delacroix frequently drew such subjects from 16th-century Italian literature, particularly from the works of Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso. In this late work, the artist has typically suppressed the delineation of the contours of the figures and relied on small strokes of unblended pigments to model their forms.