Angelica engraving Medoro's name on a tree - Tiepolo

Angelica engraves on a tree the name of Medoro, the soldier she has just married. In Ariosto, Medoro is the engraver. The inscription will cause Orlando's madness. Why did Tiepolo reverse the roles in this depiction, typical of the pastoral genre, of the inscription of the amorous cipher? To understand this, we need to understand the set-up of the scene: the restricted space of the stage is delimited in the left foreground by the shepherd's crook that Medoro has dropped to the ground in front of him. The spectator's eye must cross this symbolic barrier to enter the scene proper. On the other hand, although dressed as a shepherd, Medoro seems to have kept his soldier's quiver. Placed at right angles to the staff, it establishes a kind of boundary between him and Angélique, in line with the tree trunk where Angelica engraves Medoro's name. The staff, quiver and trunk delimit the restricted space, so that Angelica moves from the outside in…