Sacripant and Sacripante: A Note on Proust and Ariosto.
Journal Article
Overview
abstract
Studies of the imaginary works of art in +À la recherche du temps perdu= have usually been concerned with solving nonliterary problems. There is, however, one work of art-Elstir's aquarelle +Miss Sacripant= (a portrait of Odette de Crécy)-which calls to mind a definite literary source, the well-known story of Sacripante and Angelica in Canto I of Ariosto's +Orlando Furioso=. By his subtle allusions to the Sacripante and Angelica episode, and especially by his uniquely modern adaptation of the Renaissance pathos of the rose topos (the basis of Sacripante's lament in Canto I), Proust's description of Odette brings together most of the motifs associated with this character in the novel.
