Ariosto, Painter of the Sack of Rome ☆

In his landmark cultural study of the 1527 Sack of Rome, André Chastel asserted that Italians were reluctant to depict the brutal event in literature and especially in art. This article examines an often overlooked but important counterexample: the prophetic paintings on the Italian Wars, including the gruesome Sack, created by the sorcerer Merlin and viewed by the female warrior Bradamante in Ludovico Ariosto’s chivalric epic Orlando furioso . The essay explores the role of spectatorship in the episode (which bridges Cantos 32 and 33), including in subsequent illustrated editions of the poem, which gave increasing emphasis both to the paintings themselves and to female viewership of them. It then traces the cross‐text references linking poetic narratives and historical battles, from Astolfo’s encounter with the infernal Harpies to the sack of Biserta, and contrasts Ariosto’s approach with that of Matteo Maria Boiardo, who famously broke off his Orlando innamorato with the start of the Italian Wars in 1494. The essay highlights Ariosto as a key voice on the Sack of Rome, one that should cause us to reevaluate assumptions about the event’s cultural impact.