Tip: move over the painting to use the lens.

Armida Encounters the Sleeping Rinaldo

Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770)
Date: c. 1742–45
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 187.5 × 216.8 cm (73 13/16 × 85 3/8 in.); Framed: 194.8 × 223.5 × 8.3 cm (76 1/2 × 88 × 3 1/4 in.)
Made in: Italy
Style: Baroque
Where to see it: Art Institute of Chicago

Bequest of James Deering · CC0 Public Domain · Art Institute of Chicago · image via Wikimedia Commons · see it at the museum ↗

Notes from the museum

This painting likely once graced a large hall at the Palazzo Corner in Venice along with several others. The suite illustrates the ill-fated love of Armida and Rinaldo from Torquato Tasso’s 1581 epic poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). The story takes place during the First Crusade, an eleventh-century military expedition in which Christian knights attempted to seize control of Jerusalem and check the power of the Muslims who ruled the city. In this scene, the beautiful sorceress Armida encounters the knight Rinaldo as he sleeps and decides to carry him away on her cloud-borne chariot. When Rinaldo wakes, he immediately falls for Armida and forgets his quest in Jerusalem. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo painted a vast, open expanse of sky and scenery and elaborately arranged the figures, draperies, clouds, and trees to animate the composition. Although Tasso’s story symbolizes the conflict between love and duty, Tiepolo’s depiction of a magical world—enhanced by effervescent colors and dense, creamy paint—seems to evoke only love’s enchantment. Tiepolo’s paintings combine virtuosic draftsmanship with seemingly spontaneous execution, a formula perfectly suited to the large-scale works that he created to decorate palaces and churches throughout Italy, Germany, and Spain.

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

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About Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, also known as Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. He was prolific, and worked not only in Italy, but also in Germany and Spain.

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