#rinaodo

In 1581, the Italian writer Torquato Tasso published a novel that became an international bestseller: La Gerusalemme Liberata (The Liberated Jerusalem). The book was to inspire artists for centuries to come. Here, you can see how the beautiful sorceress Armida wants to kill Rinaldo in his sleep. But when she sees how handsome he is and smells his enchanting fragrance, she falls in love immediately. And so love wins.

This painting illustrates Torquato Tasso’s popular sixteenth-century epic romance Jerusalem Delivered, which is set in the eleventh century, during the First Crusade, when Western knights sought to take Jerusalem from the Muslims. The canvas captures the moment of Rinaldo’s seduction: the beautiful sorceress Armida has just arrived to divert the sleeping hero from his crusade. Accompanied by her attendant nymph and a cupid figure, she appears like a beautiful mirage, enthroned on a billowing cloud, her drapery and shawl wafting gently behind her. Altough Tasso’s story symbolizes the conflict between love and duty, Tiepolo’s depiction of a magical, bucolic world - enhanced by effervescent colors, luminous atmosphere, and dense, creamy paint - seems to evoke only love’s enchantment.