Angélique

Angelique from 1819 at the Louvre depicts the heroine of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso chained to a rock. Ingres painted this literary subject repeatedly, using the narrative context to paint the female nude in a dramatic setting that combined classical form with Romantic narrative. Ingres built his oil surfaces through meticulous underdrawing in graphite, then applied smooth, controlled layers that eliminated all visible brushwork—a deliberate rejection of the painterly Romantic style of Delacroix.

The nude figure is rendered with Ingres's characteristic smooth, luminous flesh painting. The sinuous contour line defines the figure with supreme draftsmanship, the body's curves creating a musical rhythm of form.