Melissa

In April 1516 a Ferrara printer brought out the first edition of Orlando Furioso, the poem Ludovico Ariosto wrote while serving the city's ruling Este family. This canvas was painted in Ferrara around 1518, and its heroine comes from those pages. She is Melissa, the good enchantress who breaks the spells of the sorceress Alcina and turns her victims, knights changed into trees and beasts, back into men. She sits inside a magic circle traced with signs, holding a lit torch and a tablet of geometric figures. Tiny human figures hang in the tree on the left, and a suit of armour lies empty on the ground. X-rays show that Dosso first painted a figure in armour here, then covered it. A 1650 guide to the Borghese collection called the picture a sorceress casting spells, and for a long time she passed for Circe.