This type of landscape with an ostensible 'history' subject represents the bridge between true history painting, where the role of the landscape is entirely subservient to the enactment of the subject, and the acceptance of pure landscape as a subject in its own right. The subject of the painting comes from Ariosto's poem, Orlando Furioso (1516), which tells of the conflict between Christians and Saracens at the time of Charlemagne.

Provenance

Agnew's.