The Tempest, Act I: Ferdinand and Miranda
Not on view
On a rocky shore, Miranda catches sight of Ferdinand for the first time. Her father Prospero stands beside his daughter as the spirit Ariel plays a lyre, and the disgruntled Caliban watches at left. Cipriani and Barret's conception of this famous scene from Shakespeare's "Tempest" emphasizes the dramatic coastline in keeping with an established Franco-Italian tradition of landscape painting. The oval shape and small figures suggest a work conceived as part of a decorative scheme in a grand house, the sort of thing that Cipriani often worked on for architects such as Robert Adam.