{"id":161,"date":"2017-03-22T16:55:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T16:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/?p=161"},"modified":"2024-10-02T08:43:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T08:43:10","slug":"alcinas-double-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/2017\/03\/22\/alcinas-double-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcina\u2019s double portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh\u00a0canto of Ludovico Ariosto\u2019s\u00a0Orlando furioso<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>(1532)\u00a0Ruggiero arrives\u00a0at the island of the sorceress Alcina. The sorceress encounters him on the threshold of her wonderful palace. She appears as the image of beauty itself. \u00abHer person\u00bb, Ariosto writes, \u00abis as shapely and as fine \/ As painters at their most inspired can show\u00bb, and her face presents a \u00abperfect symmetry\u00bb. The long description accurately depicts every detail of Alcina\u2019s face and body.\u00a0(OF, VII, 11-16):<\/p>\n

Di persona era tanto ben formata,
\nquanto me\u2019 finger san pittori industri;
\ncon bionda chioma lunga ed annodata:
\noro non \u00e8 che pi\u00f9 risplenda e lustri.
\nSpargeasi per la guancia delicata
\nmisto color di rose e di ligustri;
\ndi terso avorio era la fronte lieta,
\nche lo spazio finia con giusta meta.<\/p>\n

Sotto duo negri e sottilissimi archi
\nson duo negri occhi, anzi duo chiari soli,
\npietosi a riguardare, a mover parchi;
\nintorno cui par ch\u2019Amor scherzi e voli,
\ne ch\u2019indi tutta la faretra scarchi
\ne che visibilmente i cori involi:
\nquindi il naso per mezzo il viso scende,
\nche non truova l\u2019invidia ove l\u2019emende.<\/p>\n

Sotto quel sta, quasi fra due vallette,
\nla bocca sparsa di natio cinabro;
\nquivi due filze son di perle elette,
\nche chiude ed apre un bello e dolce labro:
\nquindi escon le cortesi parolette
\nda render molle ogni cor rozzo e scabro;
\nquivi si forma quel suave riso,
\nch\u2019apre a sua posta in terra il paradiso.<\/p>\n

Bianca nieve \u00e8 il bel collo, e \u2019l petto latte;
\nil collo \u00e8 tondo, il petto colmo e largo:
\ndue pome acerbe, e pur d\u2019avorio fatte,
\nvengono e van come onda al primo margo,
\nquando piacevole aura il mar combatte.
\nNon potria l\u2019altre parti veder Argo:
\nben si pu\u00f2 giudicar che corrisponde
\na quel ch\u2019appar di fuor quel che s\u2019asconde<\/p>\n

Mostran le braccia sua misura giusta;
\ne la candida man spesso si vede
\nlunghetta alquanto e di larghezza angusta,
\ndove n\u00e9 nodo appar, n\u00e9 vena eccede.
\nSi vede al fin de la persona augusta
\nil breve, asciutto e ritondetto piede.
\nGli angelici sembianti nati in cielo
\nnon si ponno celar sotto alcun velo.<\/p>\n

Avea in ogni sua parte un laccio teso,
\no parli o rida o canti o passo muova:
\nn\u00e9 maraviglia \u00e8 se Ruggier n\u2019\u00e8 preso,
\npoi che tanto benigna se la truova.
\nQuel che di lei gi\u00e0 avea dal mirto inteso,
\ncom\u2019\u00e8 perfida e ria, poco gli giova;
\nch\u2019inganno o tradimento non gli \u00e8 aviso
\nche possa star con s\u00ec soave riso.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Alcina\u2019s perfect beauty is an illusion, a deception provided by magic: once the enchantment is over, Ruggiero discovers the real appearance\u00a0of Alcina, who is an ugly old woman. Her face is wrinkled and frail, her hair is sparse and white, her mouth is toothless, and her height is scarcely six palms (OF, VII, 73):<\/p>\n

Pallido, crespo e macilente avea
\nAlcina il viso, il crin raro e canuto,
\nsua statura a sei palmi non giungea:
\nogni dente di bocca era caduto;
\nche pi\u00f9 d\u2019Ecuba e pi\u00f9 de la Cumea,
\ned avea pi\u00f9 d\u2019ogn\u2019altra mai vivuto.
\nMa s\u00ec l\u2019arti usa al nostro tempo ignote,
\nChe bella e giovanetta parer puote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The double portrait of Alcina shows a meaningful\u00a0clash between idealization and deformation, and\u00a0can be considered as a literary proto-caricature: it is a study of the human body that subtly criticises the conventional representation of beauty, which is unmasked as a fraud. If compared to the long \u201cofficial\u201d portrait, the second description of Alcina is rapidly sketched, quickly grasping the main traits of the figure, just as caricature\u2019s extemporized style does.
\nAriosto\u2019s portrait of the \u2018true\u2019 Alcina has often been put in relation with Giorgione\u2019s portrait of the ‘old woman’<\/a>: a portrait verging on allegory, in which the physical and psychological realism merges with a broader reflection on the passing of time (the woman holds a paper where can be read the words col tempo, \u201cwith time\u201d or \u201cover time\u201d). Anyway, regardless the exact meaning of the portrait, Giorgione’s representation of physical degradation entails a tension between realism and idealization which is in dialogue with Ariosto’s caricatures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the seventh\u00a0canto of Ludovico Ariosto\u2019s\u00a0Orlando furioso\u00a0(1532)\u00a0Ruggiero arrives\u00a0at the island of the sorceress Alcina. The sorceress encounters him on the threshold of her wonderful palace. She appears as the image of beauty itself. \u00abHer person\u00bb, Ariosto writes, \u00abis as shapely … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14,17,18],"tags":[38,39,21,24,64,27,41,40,33],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-16th-century","category-generic-figures","category-literary-characters","category-poetry","tag-alcina","tag-ariosto","tag-body","tag-face","tag-giorgione","tag-italy","tag-old-woman","tag-orlando-furioso","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.history.qmul.ac.uk\/litcaricature\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}