Armida Encounters the Sleeping Rinaldo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo·c. 1742–45
Historical Context
Armida Encounters the Sleeping Rinaldo, painted around 1742-45 and now at the Art Institute of Chicago, is one of four paintings Tiepolo produced illustrating episodes from Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata — the 1581 epic poem about the First Crusade that became the most popular literary source for Italian Baroque and Rococo painting. The encounter of the sorceress Armida with the sleeping crusader Rinaldo was the poem's most dramatically charged moment, combining supernatural power, erotic fascination, and moral conflict in a single image. Tiepolo painted this series for a Venetian palace, demonstrating his unrivaled ability to transform literary narrative into luminous pictorial drama. The Art Institute of Chicago holds all four paintings in the series, making it the only institution with the complete cycle and allowing visitors to follow Tasso's narrative from encounter to abandonment.
Technical Analysis
Tiepolo's brilliant palette of clear blues, warm pinks, and golden yellows creates a luminous, almost theatrical atmosphere. The composition is arranged with his characteristic theatrical staging, figures placed against an expansive sky.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the sleeping knight's vulnerable pose — Rinaldo is disarmed by enchantment, and Tiepolo contrasts his martial armor with the softness of his slumbering form.
Provenance
Possibly one of four scenes from Tasso made for the 'gabinetto degli specchi' of the Palazzo Corner a San Polo, Venice [according to inventories and other documents discussed by Romanelli 1998]. Count Giovanni Serbelloni, Venice in 1838; by descent, until possibly 1886 [Molmenti 1911 and Knox 1978]. Giulio Cartier, Genoa by 1908 [Malaquzzi Valeri 1908]; Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris, in 1912 [Ojetti 1912]; James Deering (d. 1925), Vizcaya, from 1913 [information sheet in curatorial file]; bequeathed,1925.
