Roger délivrant Angélique

"Roger délivrant Angélique" (Roger Freeing Angelica) of 1907, held at the Kunsthaus Zürich, takes its subject from Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" (1516–1532), the Renaissance epic poem in which the knight Roger (Ruggiero) rescues the chained princess Angelica from a sea monster while riding the hippogriff. The subject had been treated by several major European painters, most notably by Ingres in his celebrated 1819 and 1841 versions, which established a canonical image of the chained female nude awaiting rescue on a coastal rock. Vallotton's treatment belongs to a broader engagement with mythological and literary female captivity subjects that would culminate in his two Andromeda paintings of 1918 and 1925. His version of Roger and Angelica, compared with Ingres's heroic and erotically charged treatment, is characteristically stripped of theatricality. The Kunsthaus Zürich, the primary institutional home of his work, acquired the painting as part of its comprehensive collection.

Oil on canvas with Vallotton's mature, smooth handling. The aerial combat or coastal scene required by the subject — the hippogriff, the sea monster, the rescue — is likely resolved in Vallotton's matter-of-fact manner, the mythological elements described with the same factual directness as everyday objects. The chained figure of Angelica would share the anatomical precision of his nude studies.