Rinaldo's Farewell to Armida
by LANFRANCO, Giovanni, Oil on canvas, 109 x 178 cm
The painting illustrates an episode from canto XVI (stanzas 60-63) of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata. The artist’s focus is on the defining moment of pathos as Rinaldo takes his final leave of Armida, with the hero caught between guilt for abandoning the unconscious Armida and the pressing need to follow his destiny, placed in the hands of Fortune, who is depicted holding the tiller.
The painting is signed and dated on the hull of the ship: “IOA.S LANFRANCUS PARM/1614.” There is a second, slightly smaller version of this theme by Lanfranco in an Italian private collection.
Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 8 minutes):
George Frideric Handel: Two arias, Rinaldo, Acts II and III