Enchanted Islands

About this book

In 'Enchanted Islands', art historian Mary D. Sheriff explores the legendary, fictional, and real islands that filled the French imagination during the ancien regime as they appeared in royal ballets and festivals, epic literature, paintings, engravings, book illustrations, and other objects. Some of the islands were mythical and found in the most popular literary texts of the dayislands featured prominently, for instance, in Ariostos Orlando furioso,Tassos Gerusalemme liberata, and Fenelons, Telemachus. Other islandsreal ones, such as Tahiti and St. Dominguethe French learned about from the writings of travelers and colonists. All of them were imagined to be the home of enchantresses who used magic to conquer heroes by promising sensual and sexual pleasure.