Melissa (Circe)

Italian artist Dosso Dossi painted this commanding image of a sorceress around 1518 for the Este court in Ferrara. A turbaned woman in sumptuous clothing sits within a circle marked with cabalistic symbols, holding a torch in one hand and a geometric tablet in the other. Trees and a dog with strangely human eyes surround her in the forest setting.

The identity of this figure has shifted over time. First called a generic sorceress, then identified as Homer's Circe, art historian Julius von Schlosser recognized her in 1900 as Melissa from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Melissa was the benevolent protector of the Este dynasty who freed knights transformed into animals and trees by the witch Alcina. Restoration revealed Dossi's original composition included an armored male figure, likely the paladin Astolfo, later replaced by the human-eyed mastiff.

The painting entered the Borghese Gallery collection through Cardinal Enzo Bentivoglio, who sent it from Ferrara to Scipione Borghese. First documented in the collection in 1650, the oil-on-canvas work measures 172 by 153 centimeters and remains one of Dossi's most celebrated paintings.