ANGELIQUE ET MEDOR. 1981.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1981

22.8 x 16.5cm, two colour lithograph in printed folder. Design and drawing by Nicholas Sloan.

Angelica and Medoro are two characters from the 16th-century Italian epic Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Angelica was an Asian princess at the court of Charlemagne who fell in love with the Saracen knight Medoro, and eloped with him to China.

Angelica had a habit of carving the lovers’ names onto trees which the print here reflects – and as the folder text explains, Finlay used their French names so that the accents on the words would reflect the marking on the tree bark. Additionally the image resembles an ex libris or bookmark.

One of 300 printed. VG in like folder.