Orlando delivers Olimpia from the killer whale (Orlando furioso, Brunet 1775, c.11) - Cochin
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Description
Olimpia had been exposed by the Ebudians on the rock for the orc. Orlando intervenes and kills the orca by driving his boat's anchor into its mouth and pulling the monster ashore.
This episode is a parodic repetition of Ruggiero's first great battle with the killer whale to rescue Angelica (end of Canto 10, beginning of Canto 11), which was itself a parody of Perseus and Andromeda. Not only did Ruggiero not possess Angelica, but Orlando delivered Olimpia, not Angelica, the Olimpia he had already championed in canto 9.
The massacre of the Ébudiens by the Irish leaves Orlando unmoved, and King Obert, who conveniently comes to witness Orlando's exploit, falls opportunely in love with Olimpia in order to rid Orlando of this Lady who is not his...
Cochin's original idea here was to make the orca's mouth the restricted space of the stage. Olimpia watches Orlando disappear into the orca's mouth from the vagueness of the space: her terrified face tells us what she understands of the scene; for her, Orlando is swallowed up by the monster. For our part, we see what she can't: the inside of the monster's mouth. In this way, the forbidden gaze is signified, the mouth constituting the screen of representation. It's the device imagined by Cochin that allows us to see what Olimpia cannot.
As a result, a curious equivalence is established between the orca's terrified gaze and that of Olimpia...
Orlando leaves his boat to enter the mouth: he moves from vague space into restricted space. It's this movement, this passage, that makes the chosen moment so striking. While the boat refers to Orlando's past voyage, Olimpia on the shore evokes the aftermath of his victory to come.
- Top left: "Ch.nt XI".
Signed and dated lower left "C. N. Cochin delin.", right "N. Ponce sculp. 1776".
Imperial library stamp. - This engraving is taken from the Brunet edition, Paris, 1776.
- To be related to Canto XI of Orlando furioso, stanza 37:
Tosto ch l'orca s'accostò, e scoperse nel schifo Orlando con poco intervallo, per ingiottirlo tanta bocca aperse, ch'entrato un uomo vi saria a cavallo. Si spinse Orlando inanzi, e se gl'immerse con quella àncora in gola, e s'io non fallo, col battello anco; e l'àncora attaccolle e nel palato e ne la lingua molle
As soon as this orca discovered Ruggiero in his skiff a short distance away, he opened his mouth so wide that a man on horseback could fit inside. Orlando then steps forward, rushes into its mouth with his anchor and, if I'm not mistaken, with his boat too, and ties that anchor here in his palate, there in his soft tongue;
Technical Data
Notice #001146