A brief overview of the plot of Tasso’s epic, complete with links to all the articles, and a selection of the best of paintings.
Teniers
A summary of the stories and fate of the 6 leading characters: Godfrey of Bouillon, Prince Tancred, Rinaldo, Clorinda, Princess Erminia and Armida.
The Egyptian army arrives, and the crusaders attack them outside the city of Jerusalem. Despite cunning attempts to kill Godfrey, his crusaders win the day, and deliver the holy city at last.
Charles and Ubaldo show Rinaldo how he has become a woman’s dandy, and get him to return to the crusade with them, leaving Armida seeking her vengeance.
Charles and Ubaldo fly across the Mediterranean in a ship, reach the island where Armida is holding Rinaldo captive in her garden, and ascend its mountain to rescue him.
The crusaders first sight of the Holy City, and an initial skirmish claiming the life of Dudon. Tancred falls in love with the Saracen knight Clorinda, and Armida the sorceress is sent to damage the crusaders from within.
After the Bible and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the most popular literary source for paintings before 1900, yet hardly anyone knows this epic today. The introduction to a new series.
Later examples as it declined in popularity, from David Teniers the Younger, Gerard ter Borch, and most recently from Claude-Joseph Vernet and Joseph Stella.
Paintings by David Teniers the Younger, Domenicus van Wijnen, Tiepolo, Fantin-Latour, CĂ©zanne, FĂ©licien Rops and Lovis Corinth.
Guards throwing dice in the Crucifixion, gambling in Bosch’s vision of Hell, in a dingy tavern, losing an entire estate, and being played by young street urchins.
The Eclectic Light Company 