Armida Abandoned by Rinaldo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo·c. 1742–45
Historical Context
Armida Abandoned by Rinaldo, painted around 1742-45 and now at the Art Institute of Chicago, completes the narrative arc of Tiepolo's Tasso cycle. Rinaldo, recalled to the Crusade by an angel, abandons the enchanted island where Armida had held him captive in pleasure, leaving her to her despair. The subject allowed Tiepolo to paint feminine grief in a dramatic landscape setting, the sorceress's abandonment creating the cycle's emotional climax. The Armida figure was one of the most sympathetically treated women in Italian literary tradition, and Tiepolo invests her distress with genuine pathos while maintaining the decorative elegance characteristic of his mature Rococo style. The Art Institute's four-painting cycle, intact since their Venetian origin, provides an exceptional opportunity to study Tiepolo's narrative painting at its most ambitious.
Technical Analysis
The dramatic sky and windswept draperies heighten the emotional intensity. Tiepolo's palette shifts to cooler, more turbulent tones than the earlier scenes, with vigorous brushwork in the sky suggesting the emotional storm of the narrative.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the dramatic sky and windswept draperies heightening the emotional intensity of Armida's despair as Rinaldo departs — the sorceress's grief visible in every gesture.
- ◆Look at the cooler, more turbulent palette compared to earlier Tasso scenes, with vigorous brushwork in the sky suggesting the emotional storm of the narrative.
- ◆Observe the rejected enchantress — one of the most emotionally charged female figures in Baroque and Rococo painting.
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.
