Saint Michael Finds Discord and Other Vices in a Convent: Illustration to Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", Canto XIV

In this boldly abstract drawing, Fragonard illustrates an episode from the epic poem "Orlando Furioso", Ludovico Ariosto's sixteenth-century allegory of the struggle between the powers of Christianity and of paganism. The image emerges from a maelstrom of cursive black chalk strokes and rich washes of ink. The archangel Michael descends on billowing clouds into a church to discover two corrupt figures representing Avarice and Vanity a monk reaching into an alms plate and a nun staring adoringly at a peacock.