Medoro defends Dardinello, Angelica & Medoro (Orlando furioso, Franceschi 1584, c.19) - G. Porro

In the foreground, Girolamo Porro has chosen to depict the moment when Medoro, a young Saracen soldier, overtaken by Zerbino, a Christian knight, begs him to let him bury his chief Dardinello, before putting him to death (stanza 11). Moved by pity and seized by the young man's beauty, Zerbino prepares to pardon her: "At that moment, a brutal knight, with no respect for his prince, pierces with a spear the defenseless potrine of the unfortunate suppliant." (St. 13.)    
The scene can be read from left to right. On the left, coming from a vague elsewhere, Zerbino's troupe bursts into the theatrical space of the foreground, whose background is defined by a curtain of trees half-open in the middle. As Zerbino beckons Medoro with his sword to bury his captain, one of his companions emerges from behind him and aims his spear at the young Saracen soldier.    
Medoro is shown caught between two opposing movements: with his head turned to the left, he addresses Zerbin; with his arms outstretched towards the corpse, he points to the object of his speech, Dardinello.    
A strong line emerges in this scene, running diagonally across the engraving: at top left, Zerbin's companion with his spear fails to see Dardinel, whom Medoro hides from him, and almost kills him by mistake. In the center, Medoro shields his assailant's gaze, serving at the same time as a visual clutch for Zerbino and, from there, for us. In relation to the ground, this creates a visual cone with a bar at its center, typical of screen devices.    
The chosen moment is a striking one: Medoro is caught between the heroic gesture of the past, the fight around Dardinel's body, and the wound to come, heralded by the spear. But the moment of the performance is itself a weak moment, before the fatal blow, which constitutes the climactic moment.    
The background of the image, which unfolds in the thin, clear rectangle drawn by the opening of the curtain of trees behind Medoro, could be no more than the vague space of the stage. It is, however, still inhabited by all the episodes of the rest of the narrative, so that this engraving can and even should still be considered a narrative engraving: below, Medoro, Dardinello and Cloridan lie dead. Above, on the right, Angélique appears on horseback. On the left, she is bent over on her knees, gathering the grass that will heal Médor. Above, aided by the shepherd who lifts and holds the young man, she tends and dresses his wound, under the watchful eye of the two horses (hers and the shepherd's). Dardinel's funeral is not shown. Above, on the right in the bushes, Angelica and Medoro make love. On the left, in front of the sheepfold, they hold hands, as if to symbolize their marriage. Above the house, they enjoy the locus amoenus. Next, they are shown setting off on horseback for Cathay. Finally, at the very top, Marphisa and her companions' ship sails for the "Kingdom of Ladies", the city of Alexandrette, where Marphisa will confront Guidone. But this confrontation is not pictured.