David Kassan

"Shana in Blue" - Elegant Female Portrait by David Kassan

2021

Serge Marshennikov’s "Desert Break" (2025) is a striking oil painting on linen that exemplifies his signature mastery of light, texture, and form. M...

Daire Lynch's "The Last Remaining Time" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a blonde haired feminine figure cast in red light with a dark ba...

Elegant portrait of "Kristeen" (Grace Kelly), with short blonde hair and a white ruffled shirt by Cindy Gin (Cindy Lin) (American, 20th Century). Signed and dated "C. Gin 1991" lower...

Literary Origins of Angelica The subject of this painting is Angelica, a princess from the epic chivalric romances of the Italian Renaissance. She first appears in Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato (1483) and reappears famously in Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (1532). In these poems – part of the Matter of France cycle of Charlemagne and his paladins – Angelica’s extraordinary beauty ensnares many knights, including Orlando (Roland) and his cousin Rinaldo, sparking rivalries and adventures. Ariosto’s narrative particularly highlights Angelica’s tumultuous journey: at one point she is stripped and chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster (a scene mirroring the myth of Andromeda) before being dramatically rescued by the valiant knight Ruggiero on his winged horse. Ultimately, however, Angelica chooses her own destiny. She falls in love with a humble Saracen soldier, Medoro, whom she nurses back to health, and she returns with him to her far-off Asian kingdom – an affair that drives the heartbroken Orlando to madness. This independent resolution (marrying outside the circle of Christian knights) made Angelica an emblem of feminine agency and romantic idealism in Renaissance literature. Her story remained popular in art and literature through the centuries, symbolizing the allure and elusiveness of love. Kronberg’s Portrayal and Composition In Julius Kronberg...