![Louis Vallée - Silvio with the Wounded Dorinda [c.1651]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7579/15333002313_00208347f4_o.jpg)
Louis Vallée's subject is drawn from Giovanni Batista Guarini's late 16th-century tragicomedy Il Pastor Fido, a pastoral play that glorified arcadian life and had far-ranging effects in art and literature in France, Flanders, and the Netherlands. Its extremely intricate plot focuses on the love between the faithful shepherd Mirtillo and the nymph Amarillis, who is betrothed to Silvio by paternal arrangement. The scene here is from the subplot of Il Pastor Fido. This secondary storyline concentrates on the love of the nymph Dorinda for Silvio, who cares only for the hunt. After the faithful Dorinda is inadvertently wounded by the hunting Silvio, she crawls out from the bushes where she had been hiding in her animal-skin disguise and falls into the arms of an old man named Lupino/Linco. The distraught Silvio swears to end his own life should Dorinda die. Fortunately, the wound is only superficial and Dorinda survives; she and Silvio marry before the sun sets.
Next to nothing is known about the life of the artist Louis Vallée. The only documents about him are those that record his burial in Amsterdam's Oude Kerk on May 28, 1653.
[National Gallery of Art, Washington - Oil on canvas, 105.1 x 175.2 cm]