Love and Reason in the Orlando Furioso and in the poems of Vittoria Colonna and Gaspara Stampa written by Daniel Lalev

Love and Reason

        in the Orlando Furioso and

in the poems of Vittoria Colonna and Gaspara

                  Stampa

                written by

               Daniel Lalev

In the creative works of three great writers and creators of the
Italian national revival is represented the love and the reason for it. The
creative works of these three poets, more or less are influenced by
Francesco Petrarca. The influence is expressed by copying the form of
the verse as well as conveying particular details and style. In the
expression of the love and the reason in the other hand there are three
different points of view. The first one is in Orlando Furioso where are
represented the creative works of a man and the conveyance of one more
dynamic relations named “amore bestiale”5. In the works of the second
poet, Vittoria Colonna, the creator is a woman from the high society, a
wife of high commander who is writing for her husband and she is
extolling him as well. In the works of the third and last creator, Gaspara
Stampa, the author is conveying the love of woman poet who is very free
in her relationships with another sex and is known as “cortigiana
honesta”5. This essay will discuss the love and the reason through the
creative works of Ariosto, Colonna and Stampa.
       The master piece of Ludovico Ariosto “The Orlando Furioso” had
had three editions in which he re-creates motives and styles from the
classical traditions of medieval Italy. The typical character is the man of
the Italian national revival who is transformed in a gentleman. In the
poem, the author narrates the adventures which are represented as
something positive with the war between the Christians and Saracens as
a background. The author re-creates motivations for live, heroic and
pursuit love. According to the critics the epic scenes in the poem are a
copy of Virgil creative works. In the poem “Ariosto has a place for the
little story like allegoric episodes of Fortuna”5. The language which
Ariosto uses makes clear connection with the Neo-Platonism ideas
refreshing the notion for beauty, contemplation, poetic imagination and
knowledge. The narration is slow and large; the rhythm is slow as well,
even when there are scenes with many actions. The style and the
organization are making this master piece principal together with the
use of Italian language while his “structure is complex”5. The reason can
be seen in the rapport which the author builds with his characters and
how the poet treats them combined with his irony. Ariosto is very distant
in his works from his characters and he is not taking specific position to
them, the reader feels like in a play and the author as a producer.

Ariosto uses many different techniques in conveying his work one of
them, “the oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two normally
contradictory terms”5. The story tells about the Orlando Furioso, a
nephew and a knight of the French king Charlemagne (Charles the
Great) and his beloved, perfectly beautiful and elusive Angelica,
daughter of the emperor of Cathay. Always on the run, Angelica
challenges desire in those who see her because she is exceeding the ideal
for physical beauty. “From a religious or moral point of view, both
classical and Christian, love is not only the cause of error, it is an
error.”1 p. 199 The love and the desire in the whole master piece are
moved by visual notion for beauty. “A correspondence between the
beauty of nature and the beauty of woman is in one form or another
traditional feature of Italian poetry.”1 p.207. Since the begging is
obvious that Orlando Furioso puts the love in the center together with
the topics of the madness and the imagination turn around it. Orlando
Furioso represents the animal love in it’s lowest form, the madness of
love caused by the passionate desire. Angelica is the spark of the beauty
and the initiator of the desire which will guide Orlando towards the
education of marvelous. “The wood is full of people, most of them lovers,
most of them in love with Angelica.”1 p.208 The characters that are
ruled by the love must look for it on earth that way they will be able to
find its divine antipode. Because of this reason Orlando concentrates of
possessing the body of Angelica that way he shows terrestrial love and
human nature. Another element in the creative work of Ariosto is
represented by “the hippogriff, which flies vertically and horizontally, in
the poem it is element of Neo-Platonism”5 which represents different
kinds of love and he is an indicator for moral condition.
      Most of the sonnets of Vittoria Colonna are written after the death
of her husband and beloved. The poetess is a representative of Neo-
Platonism which dominates during this century. Her creative works over
400 sonnets can be divided into three categories “amorose”, “spirituali”
and “epistolari”5. This woman poet uses very advanced and complex
style combined with the use of the same structure as Petrarca. The
poetess uses “the stylistic figure anaphora for more stylistic influence
over the reader”5. The pride of her husband’s valor is central for her
creative works. Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos, Marquess of Pescara is

highly respected by his contemporaries and his grandeur as soldier and
general is the object of an extolment in his wife’s sonnets. Another topic
in her works is her believe in the power of love and the faith in God. The
love for her immediate family who are far from home and fight on the
battle field are conveyed as well. In the same time she is locked up at
home as her love does not influence the events, her relatives are making
heroic exploits while she is staying at home and passively watches. The
female exploit is conveyed by Colonna as passive by nature, but in the
same time she is not compensated or rewarded for her sufferings.
Further to that, these sufferings are expected by her status as woman.
The time is another conception into her works represented by the
devastated form of the death of her beloved. Looks like that the true
object is not Marquise di Pescara but Vittoria Colonna herself as a mean
of self investigation and self expression as the focus since the begging is
on her sufferings. Aim of her Rime Amorose is Vittoria Colonna to buy
up her anguish because of the early death of her husband. After the
death of the beloved, the loving relationship to him becomes wholly
spiritual and her mental union with him is completely united with her
religious believes. For this change in “marriage bonds” poetess sees
herself as transformed by taking new identity and aim: ”Qual digiuno
augellin, che vede ed ode batter l’ali a la madre intorno quando li reca il
nudrimento, ond’egli amando…” sonnet 46 “Every verse has 12 syllables
and has this structure as cuartine and as terzine”5. Later into her
sonnets she thinks for her own death as solution of her sufferings. “In
forma di musaico un alto muro d’animate scintilla alate e preste, con
catene d’amor sì ben conteste che l’una porge a l’altra il lume puro...”
Sonnet 64 is typical for expressing her christen believes and reflects the
whole interaction in the mind of Colonna between the secrets of the
marriage, the love between husband and wife and the relationship of the
poetess with her God.
      Gaspara Stampa is passionate nature (personality); she has many
free habits and relations. Her creative works are about “how to live
passionately without feeling pain. Stampa uses the technique of Petrarca;
she idealizes the love and she has tone of subordination”5. Most of her
works about 340 sonnets are devoted to the love where she tells about
her love and her spiritual anxieties. Through her verses the poetess

conveys her right to be a writer and to express herself. Gaspara Stampa
is a challenge for the society and her works follow the Petrarca’s model.
Very passionate and concentrated over the content of her works she was
not recognized while alive. Her works were published by her sister after
her death; they achieved the real success into twentieth century. The
particular importance of her works is the bust of the topic for unsatisfied
desires. According to her could be observed two types of desires, one is
for glory and another is for fulfilled love which very often contradict and
are antagonistic. The realization of her loving desires is central for her
creative works. The absence of beloved is the biggest obstacle in the
poetical universe of Stampa and her unhappy relationship, she is in
Venice and he is in family estates. The personality of Stampa would
chose the village ideal for realized love, together with idealistic visions
for loving nights and perfect union of lovers are rare into her poetry.
The poetess puts an accent on reflections of separation, she imagines
where the beloved is what he is doing and why he is not coming back?
Gaspara expresses her love as humiliation, she consciously underlines
the sex differences together with believe that the love is earthly and
opposite to celestial. In the loving poetry of Stampa there is big gamut of
emotions, the events are like earthquake. The love is made and is
“managed in hyperbolic context”5. Stampa treat human love not with a
relation with larger gamut where final aim is divine knowledge but the
comparison on basis of value and the end of her-self. Her definition of
the ideal love as into her verse, it is where her believe and passion
coexist.
         The creative works of these three great Italian creators are very
different as ways of expression but there is one thing in which they look
like similar and this is that every author expresses his or her idea for
love and the reasons for it. Every creator uses different techniques,
applies different visions but in the end the reader has the ideal of every
one of them for love. Influenced more or less by Petrarca and different
Italian poets of Middle Ages these creative works are devoted to love and
her power. The love to god, to beloved, to immediate family, all of it
expresses the Italian live style and the vision of the writers of Italian
national revival. The extreme beauty and the uniqueness of techniques
make the creative works of these Italian creators a part of world legacy

of the humanity and they are brining us the beauty and the wisdom of
Italian renaissance. One heritage that did last for five centuries because
has been preserved by the human love. Many are the reasons for it but
the power still stays and makes it stronger to survive over the centuries.

  1. D.S. Carne-Ross “The one and the many: a reading of Orlando
     Furioso, Canto 1 and 8”
  2. Vittoria Colonna “Rime amorose”
  3. Gaspara Stampa Selected Poems
  4. Ludovico Ariosto “The Orlando Furioso”
  5. Lectures and tutorials