Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; XVII century.
"Portrait of Ludovico Ariosto and Alessandra Benucci".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 106 x 83 cm; 117 x 94 cm (frame).
This work is part of the baroque pictorial tradition that combines an interest in psychological characterization with a marked compositional theatricality. On the left, a young woman of serene bearing holds a closed book and a pen, symbols that refer both to education and courtly culture; on the right, a mature man, dressed in a dark cloak lined with fur, carries a scroll and a volume identified by the inscription "FURIOUS", a clear allusion to the epic poem Orlando Furioso, which underlines his status as a poet and humanist. Both characters wear laurel wreaths, a classic emblem of literary genius and intellectual virtue, a frequent recourse in Italian Baroque highbrow portraiture to elevate the representation to an allegorical level. It is likely to be the repression of Ludovico Ariosto and Alessandra Benucci, who had a secret love affair. They met in 1513 and became lovers in Ferrara. They married between 1528 and 1530, but kept the marriage secret for economic reasons and for Ariosto's ecclesiastical benefits. Ariosto died in 1533, leaving Benucci a widow for the second time.
The lighting, concentrated on the faces and hands, reveals the intention to accentuate the expressiveness and the exchange of glances, suggesting an affective as well as an intellectual relationship. The treatment of the canvases, with dense folds and sober coloring, responds to the conventions of the Italian school, which in the 17th century tended towards a warm palette and a search for volume through softened hallmarks. The oval composition, usual in chamber portraits and devotional pieces, confers an atmosphere of recollection and solemnity, reinforcing the commemorative character of the portrait. Overall, the painting articulates symbolic, stylistic and narrative elements typical of the late Baroque humanist tradition, presenting the characters not only as historical figures, but as embodiments of Renaissance scholarship and literary culture reinterpreted from the sensibility of the seventeenth century.