27 Artists embedded with the First Crusade, Jerusalem Delivered, with footnotes # 36

Jerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso first published in 1581, which tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem.

GG Barbelli (or Barbello), Crema painter (1590-1650).
The composition is part of the frescoes of the Palazzo Moroni in Bergamo

Giovanni Giacomo Barbelli (17 April 1604 – 12 July 1656) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in Brescia. He was born in Offanengo, near Crema, and is mentioned as a mentor of Evaristo Baschenis. Among his works are a Nativity altarpiece for the sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Brughiera in Bulliana in the province of Biella. He also painted two altarpieces, a Crucifixion and a Circumcision (attributed) for the Sanctuary della Madonna del Pianto in Ono Degno, near Pertica Bassa. He painted history scenes into quadratura by Domenico Ghislandi for the Palazzo Terzi as well as for the Palazzo Moroni (1649–1654) in Bergamo.  More on Giovanni Giacomo Barbelli

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)
Crusaders Thirsting near Jerusalem, c. 1836 - 1850
Oil on canvas
Royal Palace of Turin, Torino , Italy

Francesco Hayez (10 February 1791 – 21 December 1882) was an Italian painter, the leading artist of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories and exceptionally fine portraits.

Hayez came from a relatively poor family from Venice. He was brought up by his mother's sister, who had married a well-off shipowner and collector of art. From childhood he showed a predisposition for drawing, so his uncle apprenticed him to an art restorer. Later he became a student of the painter Francesco Maggiotto with whom he continued his studies for three years. He was admitted to the painting course of the New Academy of Fine Arts in 1806. In 1809 he won a competition from the Academy of Venice for one year of study at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He remained in Rome until 1814, then moved to Naples where he was commissioned by Joachim Murat to paint a major work depicting Ulysses at the court of Alcinous. In the mid-1830s he attended the "Salotto Maffei" salon in Milan.

Francesco Hayez lived long and was prolific. His output spanned both historic paintings, and Neoclassic style grand themes, either from biblical or classical literature. He also painted scenes from theatrical presentations of his day.  More Francesco Hayez

Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA (1775 – 1851)
Domenico Paradisi
The Crusaders before Jerusalem,  eighteenth century

The Crusaders (portrayed as ancient Romans) first see Jerusalem - XVIIIth century backcloth for an opera based on "Jerusalem Delivered" by Torquato Tasso, a poem William Turner was familiar with. More on this painting

Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA (baptised 14 May 1775 – 19 December 1851) was an English Romanticist landscape painter. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.

Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light" and his work is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism. More on Joseph Mallord William Turner

The poem bears no resemblance to the actual history or cultural setting of the Crusades, but explains of the initial disunity and setbacks of the Christians and their ultimate success in taking Jerusalem in 1099. The main historical leaders of the First Crusade are featured, but the poem is concerned with romantic sub-plots involving entirely fictional characters, except for Tancredi, who is identified with the historical Tancred, Prince of Galilee. 

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, (1590–1645)
Rinaldo slaughters enemies, c. 1640
The victory of the Christian warrior Rinaldo on the opposing forces. Rinaldo is caught in the act of inflicting the fatal blow to Suleiman
 Castle of Conversano (Bari)

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, or Finoglio (c. 1590–1645), was an Italian painter of the early-Baroque period, active mainly in South Italy, including Naples and towns in Apulia.

Finoglia was born in Orta di Atella, near Naples, but sometimes signed his work Neapolitanus. He likely apprenticed with Ippolito Borghese, but derived from Battistello Caracciolo a tenebrist style, similar to that of Caravaggio.

He painted extensively in 1620–1626 in the Certosa di San Martino in Naples. One of Finoglia's masterpieces is the decorative series of ten large canvases on episodes of Torquato Tasso's epic Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) .The series was commissioned for the family castle starting in 1634 by the count of Conversano, Giangirolamo II Acquaviva d'Aragona. 

His paintings had come into private hands, and were re-acquired by the town and rehung in their original places in the Castello. Among his pupils were Carlo Rosa and Nicola Gliri. More on Paolo Domenico Finoglia

Godfrey of Bouillon is elected Captain of the gathered army of Crusaders [the "Franks"] in the sixth and final year of the First Crusade, 1099. They have already taken Nicaea and Antioch and are preparing to take Jerusalem. God sends to Godfrey the angel Gabriel to say He has elected him to lead. The goal of the Crusade is "founding in Palestine a new kingdom where religion might have a solid seat and there would be none to forbid the dedicated pilgrim to adore the great sepulcher and discharge his vow..."  Godfrey calls a council and insists that they focus on the intended goal, and not on rearing princedoms, etc. The gathered princes respond variously but elect him leader.

Godfrey calls the men to make ready, as he has learned Egypt's king is coming toward Gaza with a large army to defend Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem is ruled by Aladine, Prince of Jerusalem and a follower of Mohammed.  Aladine oppresses the local Christians. He works to fortify the city against the impending siege attack.

The sorcerer Ismen, a Muslim, makes plans for the stealing of an effigy of Mary from the Christian's temple in Jerusalem. But after it is stolen, it disappears.. Sofronia, a Christian maiden of Jerusalem, accuses herself of a crime in order to avert a general massacre of the Christians by the Muslim king. In an attempt to save her, her lover Olindo accuses himself in turn, and each lover pleads with the authorities in order to save the other. 

Paolo de' Matteis, (1662–1728)
Clorinda Rescuing Olindo and Sophronia from the Stake, c.1690
Oil on canvas
146 x 178 cm
Durham University, England

Paolo de Matteis (also known as Paolo de' Matteis; 9 February 1662 – 26 January 1728) was an Italian painter. He was born in Piano Vetrale, a hamlet of Orria, in the current Province of Salerno, and died in Naples. He trained with Francesco di Maria in Naples, then with Luca Giordano. He served in the employ of the Spanish Viceroy of Naples. From 1702 to 1705, de' Matteis worked in Paris, Calabria, and Genoa. In Genoa, he painted an Immaculate Conception with St. Jerome Appearing to St. Sevrio. Returning to Naples, he painted decorative schemes for Neapolitan churches, including the vault of the chapel of San Ignatius in the church of Gesù Nuovo in Naples. He also painted an Assumption of the Virgin for the Abbey at Monte Cassino. Between 1723–1725, de' Matteis lived in Rome, where he received a commission from Pope Innocent XIII. More on Paolo de' Matteis

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, or Finoglio (c. 1590–1645)
The torture of Olinda and Zephaniah, c. 1640 and 1643

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, or Finoglio (c. 1590–1645), see above

 Eugène Delacroix
Clorinda Rescues Olindo and Sophronia, c. 1856
Oil on canvas
10.7 x 13.2 inches
Pinakotheken, BAVARIAN STATE PAINTING COLLECTIONS

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.

As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish author Walter Scott and the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.

However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible." MoreFerdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix

In a plumed helmet, the Persian warrior-maiden Clorinda arrives on her white horse to save the lovers Sofronia and Olindo. When Aladine, the king of Jerusalem, threatened to execute the whole Christian community for the theft of a sacred image. Clorinda saved them from the fire by offering to fight for the king in the coming battle with the Crusaders. 

Mattia Preti (Italian (Neapolitan), 1613 - 1699)
Clorinda Rescuing Sofronia and Olindo, about 1660
Oil on canvas
178.4 × 231.8 cm (70 1/4 × 91 1/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

All eyes are riveted on Clorinda, whose leaning posture and pointing gesture lead diagonally up to the figures of Sofronia and Olindo. Figures press close to the picture plane against a turbulent black, yellow, and orange streaked sky. Mattia Preti used strong chiaroscuro to contrast the partially illuminated, startled faces of the crowd with the determination of Clorinda's shadowed profile. Sofronia and Olindo are brightly lit, perhaps indicating the nearness of the fire. More on this painting

Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta. He was also a member of the Order of Saint John. Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called Il Cavalier Calabrese (the Calabrian Knight) after he was accepted into the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) in 1660. His early apprenticeship is said to have been with the "Caravaggist" Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, which may account for his lifelong interest in the style of Caravaggio.

Before 1630, Preti joined his brother Gregorio in Rome, where he became familiar with the techniques of Caravaggio and his school as well as with the work of Guercino, Rubens, Guido Reni, and Giovanni Lanfranco. In Rome, he painted fresco cycles in the churches of Sant'Andrea della Valle and San Carlo ai Catinari. Between 1644 and 1646, he may have spent time in Venice, but remained based in Rome until 1653, returning later in 1660-61. He painted frescoes, and participated in the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Pamphilj in Valmontone.

During most of 1653-1660, he worked in Naples, where he was influenced by another major painter of his era, Luca Giordano. One of Preti's masterpieces were a series of large frescoes, ex-votos of the plague, depicting the Virgin or saints delivering people from the plague. The bozzetto of the Virgin with the baby Jesus looming over the dying. 

Having been made a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John, he visited the order’s headquarters in Malta in 1659 and spent most of the remainder of his life there. Preti was fortunate to enjoy a long career and have a considerable artistic output. His paintings, representative of the exuberant late Baroque style, are held by many great museums, including important collections in Naples, Valletta, and in his hometown of Taverna. More Mattia Preti 

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)
Crusaders Thirsting near Jerusalem, c. 1836 - 1850
Oil on canvas
Royal Palace of Turin, Torino , Italy

Francesco Hayez (10 February 1791 – 21 December 1882) was an Italian painter, the leading artist of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories and exceptionally fine portraits.

Hayez came from a relatively poor family from Venice. He was brought up by his mother's sister, who had married a well-off shipowner and collector of art. From childhood he showed a predisposition for drawing, so his uncle apprenticed him to an art restorer. Later he became a student of the painter Francesco Maggiotto with whom he continued his studies for three years. He was admitted to the painting course of the New Academy of Fine Arts in 1806. In 1809 he won a competition from the Academy of Venice for one year of study at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. He remained in Rome until 1814, then moved to Naples where he was commissioned by Joachim Murat to paint a major work depicting Ulysses at the court of Alcinous. In the mid-1830s he attended the "Salotto Maffei" salon in Milan.

Francesco Hayez lived long and was prolific. His output spanned both historic paintings, and Neoclassic style grand themes, either from biblical or classical literature. He also painted scenes from theatrical presentations of his day.  More Francesco Hayez

The Crusaders arrive before the walls of Jerusalem. Aladine is accompanied by Erminia, who came to his court after her father Cassano king of Antioch lost his throne and was killed by the Crusaders. Clorinda rides out to attack the Franks, and is countered by Tancred. Erminia conceals her secret passion for Tancred. 

Paolo Domenico Finoglia
Clorinda attacks Tancredi, c. 1640-1645
Palazzo Acquaviva, Conversano,  Italy

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, or Finoglio (c. 1590–1645), was an Italian painter of the early-Baroque period, active mainly in South Italy, including Naples and towns in Apulia.

Finoglia was born in Orta di Atella, near Naples, but sometimes signed his work Neapolitanus. He likely apprenticed with Ippolito Borghese, but derived from Battistello Caracciolo a tenebrist style, similar to that of Caravaggio.

He painted extensively in 1620–1626 in the Certosa di San Martino in Naples. One of Finoglia's masterpieces is the decorative series of ten large canvases on episodes of Torquato Tasso's epic Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) .The series was commissioned for the family castle starting in 1634 by the count of Conversano, Giangirolamo II Acquaviva d'Aragona. 


His paintings had come into private hands, and were re-acquired by the town and rehung in their original places in the Castello. Among his pupils were Carlo Rosa and Nicola Gliri. More on Paolo Domenico Finoglia

Erminia admires the handsome Rinaldo. She identifies the Crusader heroes; Dudon is killed, and Rinaldo is enraged. Godfrey counsels his men to turn back from the attack. Funeral observances are held for Dudon. The Franks begin to harvest timber to construct siege machines.

Clorinda joins the Muslims, but the Christian knight Tancredi falls in love with her. On a night raid she sets the Christian siege tower on fire.  During the skirmish a skillful shot rider causes the woman's helmet to fall, and she appears in all her beauty. Tancred finally recognizes his beloved but does not react. Instead he decides to reveal his love. As he is about to speak, she is wounded to the neck, arousing the anger of Tancred for his inaction.

Lorenzo Lippi, (1606 - 1665 Florence) - GND
Armida in the Camp of Christians
Oil on canvas
216 cm x 177 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, picture gallery

Lorenzo Lippi (3 May 1606 – 15 April 1665) was an Italian painter and poet. Born in Florence, he studied painting under Matteo Rosselli, the influence of whose style is to be traced in Lippi's works. His maxim was to poetize as he spoke, and to paint as he saw. 

After painting for some time in Florence, and having married at the age of forty the daughter of the rich sculptor Giovanni Francesco Susini, Lippi went as court painter to Innsbruck, where he has left many excellent portraits.

Lippi was somewhat self-sufficient and arrogant. When visiting Parma, he not look at the famous paintings by Corregio there, saying that they could teach him nothing. He died of pleurisy in 1664, in Florence. 

He should not be confused with the Quattrocento-Renaissance, father-son pair of Florentine painters Filippo and Filippino Lippi. More on Lorenzo Lippi

Hydraotes, ruler of Damascus, sends Armida to the Christian camp for the purpose of seducing them with her wily and magical ways. She is "proud of her beauty, and of the gifts of her sex and her youth".  On arrival at the camp of the Franks, Eustace leads her to Godfrey. Using her most sensual appeal, she asks Godfrey for aid. She claims she is chaste and her honor unspotted. Godfrey refuses her request for the moment, but Eustace appeals on her behalf, and Godfrey partially relents. The whole camp of thousands of men fall in love (lust?) with her.

When the time has come for her to leave, she stirs the more susceptible men to jealousy. She is allotted 10 defenders, chosen by drawing lots, but many other men volunteer to accompany her on the effort to win back her throne-they ignore Godfrey's warnings of caution in trusting a pagan woman. She leaves the camp, followed by many men including Eustace.

Argantes is resolved to do single combat with the Franks.  He sallies forth accompanied by Clorinda and troops.  Tancred is elected to fight Argantes, but he is initially preoccupied with love for the lovely Clorinda.  Argantes therefore fights Otho, and is wounded.  Tancred then challenges him, and they fight until night forces a halt.  Tacred pledges to Argantes that he will reappear to resume the fight

Lorenzo Lippi (1606 - 1665 Florence) - GND
Erminia lets herself be dressed by her Clorinda
Oil on canvas
218 cm x 177 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Lorenzo Lippi (3 May 1606 – 15 April 1665), see above

Erminia recalls how nobly Tancred treated her when he defeated her father Cassano, king of Antioch, and how Tancred granted her liberty.  She came to Jerusalem, still burning with love for Tancred.  Erminia now wants to treat Tancred's wounds.  She is a close friend to the pagan warrior maiden, Clorinda, and resolves to steal her armor to use as a disguise so she can go to Tancred.  She heads out dressed in her armor, but is ambushed by Polyphernes and flees.  Tancred, thinking she is Clorinda, searches after her.

Argantes returns to finish the combat, but finds that Tancred is missing.  Raymond (Count of Toulouse) volunteers to be Tancred's substitute, recalling the fights of his younger days.  He prays for divine protection, and almost defeats Argantes with the help of an angel sent by God.  But Beelzebub sends assistance to Argantes, and Oradin is induced to shoot Raymond with an arrow.  The truce conventions of single combat have thereby been violated.  General fighting ensues and Clorinda charges in with her troops and the Franks are routed.

The Crusaders are preparing to assault the city. At dawn, they call the troops to arms.  The pagans are also preparing for battle.  Battle begins--the weapons employed include boiling pitch and battering rams.  Clorinda picks off many noblemen with her arrows.  The wall is breached by the ram.  Godfrey is wounded by Clorinda's arrow, and Guelph is put in charge. Pagan women join in the fighting. Night forces a halt to the assault on the city.

Clorinda seeks greater glory, and tells Argantes of her plan to burn Godfrey's siege machines at midnight.  Clorinda and Argantes sally forth and successfully burn down the siege tower.  But as they retreat from the counterattack that ensues, she is inadvertently left outside the closed gate.  Tancred notices her and challenges her to a fight (not realizing she is a woman).  They fight until it is obvious she is losing more blood than him.  He wants to know "his" name, but she only tells him that she destroyed the tower.  Tancred is angered and mortally wounds her. 

Ambroise Dubois (1542/43–1614/15)
Tancred Baptising Clorinda

Among the first to illustrate Jerusalem was a Flemish, Ambroise Dubois (1543 ca.-1614). He worked in the castle of Fontainebleau, France, and painted several episodes of the life of Clorinda, in what was properly called the Cabinet de Clorinde. We could not miss, of course, the most poignant moment: shot to death during a daring sortie, the beautiful heroine gives her life for the cause Saracen. But she has just learned of being daughter of Christians, and as a Christian she wants to die. To give her the baptism will be her murderer himself, Tancredi, in love and desperate.

Ambroise Dubois (1542/43–1614/15) was a Flemish-born French painter. Dubois was born in Antwerp and became a painter of the second School of Fontainebleau. His influences were Niccolò dell'Abbate and Francesco Primaticcio. Dubois painted primarily portraits and mythological scenes. Dubreuil was painter to Marie de Médicis in 1606, decorating the Queen's Cabinet with episodes from Tancred and Clorinda. He died in Fontainebleau. More on Ambroise Dubois

Paolo Domenico Finoglio, (1590-1645)
Tancred Baptising Clorinda, 1642-1645
Oil on canvas
260 x 300 cm

Paolo Domenico Finoglio, see above

Anonymous
Tancred Baptising Clorinda, 17th cent.
Tancred baptised Clorinda with water which he brought from a spring in his helmet.
Oil, canvas
107 x 181 cm
National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Knowing she is dying, she asks that he baptize her.  Tancred uncovers her head and discovers who she really is, that she is the woman he had loved.  He fetches water from a nearby stream, and baptizes her, after which she dies.  He deeply grieves to lose her.  The Franks arrive and take Tancred and Clorinda's body back to camp. She is buried, and the next day he visits the grave, consoled that she has forgiven him, hoping to be united with her in death.  Arsetes laments her death, and Argantes swears vengeance.

Domenico Tintoretto, (1560–1635)
Tancred baptizing Clorinda, circa 1585
Oil on canvas
Height: 168 cm (66.1 in). Width: 115 cm (45.3 in).
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Domenico Tintoretto (Domenico Robusti), about 1560 - 1635. Like many family-trained artists, Domenico Tintoretto began his career by helping his renowned father, Jacopo Tintoretto, in his Venice workshop. In 1576, when Domenico was seventeen years old, he was admitted to the Venetian painters' guild. One of his first assignments outside the workshop included assisting his father with a commission to execute paintings in the Doge's Palace. Domenico then received independent commissions at the palace, creating heroic scenes such as the Second Conquest of Constantinople. In addition to history painting, Domenico painted portraits and mythological and religious subjects. Throughout his mature years, he collaborated occasionally with his father; however, Domenico was sought after for his own talent. In 1592 he was summoned to Ferrara to paint a portrait of Margaret of Austria. Three years later he traveled to Mantua, commissioned by a member of the Gonzaga family to execute a portrait. Though the influence of his father, and at times even his father's assistants, is evident in many of Domenico's paintings, his drawings are entirely original. More on Domenico Tintoretto

To prevent the crusaders from cutting timber for siege engines, the Muslim sorcerer Ismen protects the forest with enchantments, which defeat the Christian knights. Ismen summons demons and hellish spirits to fill the only available forest. 

Godfrey wishes to have the siege machines built.  But the Franks are frightened away by the demons in the woods.  Alcasto fails to disperse the spirits and flees.  Them Tancred enters the forest and fails as well.  He is deluded when he hears the false voice of Clorinda. He is also confronted by a fire that does not burn, and various monsters.  He reports on his failure to Godfrey.   Peter the Hermit advises they desist on the plan to harvest the forest.

The summer heat increases, and the Crusaders suffer from the drought.  God sends Godfrey a dream and counsels him to find and bring back Rinaldo. He selects Charles and Ubaldo to search for Rinaldo.

Hoffmann, A.

The picture shows the siege of Jerusalem during the first crusade. After the destruction of the Church of the Resurrection (1095 A.C.), Byzantines Emperor Alexios I Komnenos was seeking for western support. In response to that, Urban II proclaimed the First crusade to Jerusalem. On the picture you can see a martial depiction of the assault on the city of Jerusalem with siege engines, catapults, siege towers and mobile wooden walls. The troops of the Fatimid governors defend the city.

Wiseman of Ascalon tells them of Rinaldo's adventures while under Armida's enchantment. How Armida had arranged for the deception and lured Rinaldo to an island, enticing him like a Siren with promises of sensual pleasure, and disparaging the illusory benefits of Fame. She fell in love with him, and transported him in a magic chariot to the Fortunate Islands [Canary Islands?] in the Atlantic Ocean, where she still keeps him for her pleasure. 

Another maiden of the region, the Princess Erminia of Antioch, also falls in love with Tancredi and betrays her people to help him, but she grows jealous when she learns that Tancredi loves Clorinda. One night she steals Clorinda's armor and leaves the city, in an attempt to find Tancredi, but she is attacked by Christian soldiers, who mistake her for Clorinda, and she flees into the forest, where she is cared for by a family of shepherds, with an old man who weaves baskets.

Guillaume Guillon Lethière, (French, 1760 - 1832)
Erminia and the Shepherds, c. 1795
Oil On Canvas
39 in. (99.06 cm)
Dallas Museum of Art

Guillaume Guillon-Lethière (10 January 1760 – 22 April 1832) was a French neoclassical painter. Born in Guadeloupe in 1760 to a French colonial official, Lethière has been often written about in the context of French colonial history and the French Revolution.

At 14 years old, he moved from Guadeloupe to Metropolitan France, and by 17 he had become the student of Gabriel François Doyen at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. Lethière won second prize in the Prix de Rome of 1784 for his painting Woman of Canaan at the Feet of Christ. He entered again two years later, and while he did not win, he succeeding in receiving support to travel to Rome where he further developed his neoclassical style. Lethière remained in Rome for several years, and returned to Paris in 1791 to open a painting studio in direct competition with Jacques-Louis David. In 1818 Lethière was finally elected and also awarded the Légion d’honneur, and a year later he became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts. More on Guillaume Guillon-Lethière

Giovanni Lanfranco, (1582 - 1647)
Erminia among the shepherds 
Oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome

Giovanni Lanfranco, also called Giovanni di Steffano or Il Cavaliere Giovanni Lanfranchi (born Jan. 26, 1582, Parma [Italy]—died Nov. 30, 1647, Rome) Italian painter, an important follower of the Bolognese school. He was a pupil of Agostino Carracci in Parma (1600–02) and later studied with Annibale Carracci in Rome. A decisive influence on his work, however, was not just the Baroque classicism of the Carracci brothers but the dynamic illusionism of the dome paintings in Parma by Correggio. Lanfranco translated Correggio’s 16th-century style into a Roman Baroque idiom. Soon after his arrival in Rome (1612), he painted the ceiling frescoes Joseph Explaining the Dreams of His Fellow Prisoners and Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (both 1615) in the Palazzo Mattei. The frescoes combine techniques and styles learned from Annibale Carracci and from Lanfranco’s own study of Correggio and Caravaggio. Lanfranco’s painting in the dome of San Andrea della Valle in Rome (1621–25) derives directly from Correggio in its virtuoso use of vigorously posed figures floating in the clouds over the spectator’s head. Lanfranco worked in Naples from 1633/34 to 1646, his best known work there being the dome of the chapel of San Gennaro in the cathedral (1641–46). He was a bitter rival of Domenichino, both in Rome and later in Naples. More on Giovanni Lanfranco

Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), Italian (Bologna), 1591-1666
Erminia and the Shepherds, 1648
Oil on canvas
The William Hood Dunwoody Fund

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666), see below

Gian Antonio Guardi and Francesco Guardi
Erminia and the Shepherds, c. 1750/55
251.5 x 442.2 cm
Oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1699 – 23 January 1760), see below 

Paolo Domenico Finoglia (1590–1645)
Raymond of Toulouse faces Argant duel, c. 640-45
Disunity and setbacks of the Christians
Oil on canvas
Palazzo Acquaviva, Conversano

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, or Finoglio (c. 1590–1645), see above

Giannantonio Guardi, (1698-1760)
Combat of Tancredi and Argante

Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1699 – 23 January 1760), also known as Gianantonio Guardi, was an Italian painter and nobleman. Guardi was one of the founders of the Venetian Academy in 1756. Born in Vienna into a family of nobility from Trentino. His father Domenico (born in 1678) a Baroque painter, and his brothers Niccolò and Gian Antonio (also painters), later inherited the family workshop after their father's death in 1716. They probably all contributed as a team to some of the larger commissions later attributed to his brother Francesco Guardi. His sister Maria Cecilia married the pre-eminent Veneto-European painter of his epoch, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

He may have received his artistic training in Vienna, where he is first recorded in 1719, but had established a workshop in Venice by 1730. He produced copies after the work of other artists, as well as a series of originals with Turkish-inspired interiors as easel pictures for private decorations. Antonio Guardi trained his younger brothers Nicolò and Francesco in his workshop, the latter working closely with him as a figure painter before establishing himself as a vedutista in the late 1750s.

He died in Venice in 1760. More on Giovanni Antonio Guardi

Tancred encounters Argantes.  They want to complete their single combat and withdraw some distance from the city and to fight it out.  Tancred is wounded but slays Argantes, then collapses exhausted and wounded. Mass killing and rape takes place in the city. Rinaldo breaks into the temple of Solomon, where more pagans are slaughtered.  Solyman takes Aladine to the Tower of David.  Raymond is nearly taken hostage.  Godfrey calls a halt to the fighting for the night. 

Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1699–1760)
Herminia and Vaprino Find the Wounded Tancred, c. 1750 and 1755
Oil on canvas
Height: 250 cm (98.4 in). Width: 261 cm (102.8 in).
Accademia of Venice

Giannantonio Guardi, (1698-1760), see above

Paolo Domenico Finoglio (1590-1645)
Erminia Discovers the Wounded Tancredi, 1642-1645
Oil on canvas 
260 x 300 cm

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, or Finoglio (c. 1590–1645), see above

Guercino,  (1591–1666)
Erminia Finds the Wounded Tancred, between 1618 and 1619
Oil on canvas
Height: 145.5 cm (57.3 in). Width: 187.5 cm (73.8 in).
Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Rome, Italy

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666), best known as Guercino, was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from the region of Emilia, and active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous naturalism of his early manner is in contrast to the classical equilibrium of his later works. His many drawings are noted for their luminosity and lively style.

Mainly self-taught, at the age of 16, he worked as apprentice in the shop of Benedetto Gennari, a painter of the Bolognese School. By 1615, he moved to Bologna, where his work was praised by Ludovico Carracci. Guercino painted two large canvases, Elijah Fed by Ravens and Samson Seized by Philistines, for Cardinal Serra, a Papal Legate to Ferrara. These paintings have a stark naturalist Caravaggesque style, although it is unlikely that Guercino saw any of the Roman Caravaggios first-hand.

Guercino's early works are often tumultuous. He often claimed that his early style was influenced by a canvas of Ludovico Carracci that he saw in the Capuchin church in Cento. Some of his later works are closer to the style of his contemporary Guido Reni, and are painted with more lightness and clearness. More on Guercino

Workshop of Lippi, Lorenzo
Erminia finds the wounded Tancred, c. 1647/1650
Oil on canvas
286 x 200 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.

Lorenzo Lippi (3 May 1606 – 15 April 1665), see above

Alessandro Turchi, (1578–1649)
Erminia Finds the Wounded Tancred, circa 1630
Oil on canvas
147 x 233,5 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.

Erminia abandons her Muslim people and goes over to the Christian side. When Tancredi is dangerously wounded in combat, she heals him, cutting off her hair to bind his wounds.

Alessandro Turchi (1578 – 22 January 1649) was an Italian painter of the early Baroque, born and active mainly in Verona, and moving late in life to Rome. He also went by the name Alessandro Veronese or the nickname L'Orbetto.

Turchi initially trained with Felice Riccio (il Brusasorci) in Verona. By 1603, he was working as independent painter. Turchi painted the organ shutters for the Accademia Filarmonica of Verona. When Brusasorci died in 1605, Turchi and Pasquale Ottino completed a series of their deceased master's canvases. On leaving the school of Riccio, he went to Venice, where he worked for a time under Carlo Cagliari.

By 1616, Turchi traveled to Rome and participated in the fresco decoration depicting the Gathering of Manna for the Sala Reggia of the Quirinal Palace. In competition with Andrea Sacchi and Pietro da Cortona, he painted some pictures in the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. In 1619, he sent an altarpiece of the 40 martyrs for the Chapel of the Innocents in the church of Santo Stefano, Verona, to hang next to paintings by Pasquale Ottino and Marcantonio Bassetti. He was much employed on cabinet pictures, representing historical subjects, which he frequently painted on black marble. 

In 1637, with the sponsorship of the cardinal Francesco Barberini, he became Principe or director of the Accademia di San Luca. In 1638, he joined the papal guild of artists, called the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi al Pantheon. He died in Rome. More on Alessandro Turchi

Nicolas Poussin,  (1594–1665)
Rinaldo and Armida, circa 1630
Armida discovers the sleeping Rinaldo. Cupid restrains her from stabbing her enemy
Oil on canvas
Height: 822 mm (32.36 in). Width: 1,092 mm (42.99 in).
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Nicolas Poussin (French: June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. His work is characterized by clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. Until the 20th century he remained a major inspiration for such classically oriented artists as Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Paul Cézanne.


He worked in Rome for a circle of leading collectors from there and elsewhere, except for a short period when Cardinal Richelieu ordered him back to France to serve as First Painter to the King. Most of his works are history paintings of religious or mythological subjects that very often have a large landscape element. More on Nicolas Poussin

Anthony van Dyck,  (1599–1641)
Rinaldo and Armida, c. 1629
Oil on canvas
93 x 90 in. (235.3 x 228.7 cm.)
Baltimore Museum of Art

Armida comes across the sleeping Rinaldo, the greatest of the Christian knights, and abducts him in her chariot. He has the same name as a Carolingian paladin count who is a character in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso; he is the son of Bertoldo and was the reputed founder of the House of Este. She intends to kill him but she falls in love with him instead and takes him away to a magical island where he becomes infatuated with her and forgets the crusade. 

Sir Anthony van Dyck, ( 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England, after enjoying great success in Italy and Flanders. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next 150 years. He also painted biblical and mythological subjects, displayed outstanding facility as a draughtsman, and was an important innovator in watercolour and etching. The Van Dyke beard is named after him. More Sir Anthony van Dyck

François Boucher, (1703–1770)
Rinaldo and Armida, c. 1734
Oil on canvas
Height: 135.5 cm (53.3 in). Width: 170.5 cm (67.1 in).
Louvre Museum

François Boucher (29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories, and pastoral scenes. He was perhaps the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century. He also painted several portraits of his patroness, Madame de Pompadour. More on François Boucher

Gerard Hoet, (1648–1733)
Rinaldo and Armida, 17th century or 18th century
Oil on canvas
118.5 x 96.5 cm
Private Collection

Gerard Hoet; 22 August 1648 – 2 December 1733) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver. Hoet trained with his father and brother who were glass painters, and Warnard van Rijsen, who lived in Zaltbommel, and who himself was a pupil of Cornelis van Poelenburgh in Utrecht. In 1672 Hoet moved to The Hague, but when the Count of Salis bought his paintings at his mother's house in Zaltbommel, Hoet returned to paint for him. More on Gerard Hoet

Willem van Mieris,  (1662–1747)
Paraphrasing Francis van Bossuit
Rinaldo and Armida, c. 1709
Oil on panel
Height: 66.8 cm (26.3 in). Width: 85.7 cm (33.7 in).
Royal Picture Gallery, Mauritshuis

Willem van Mieris (3 June 1662 – 26 January 1747) was an 18th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands. He was born in Leiden as the son of Frans van Mieris sr. and brother of Jan van Mieris. He was a member of the Leiden Guild of St. Luke and a founding member of the Leidse Tekenacademie which opened in 1694. His pupils were Catharina Backer, Abraham Alensoon, and Hieronymous van de Mij. He retired in 1736 because he was partially blind. He died, aged 84, in Leiden.
His works are extremely numerous and show the influence of Francis van Bossuit as well as his father. As an artist, he did not equal his father.
van Mieris has works in the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as Cheltenham and Derby Museum and Art Gallery. More on Willem van Mieris

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770
Rinaldo and Armida, c. 1755-60
Oil on canvas
39 x 62 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770, see below

Francesco Zugno (1709–1787) 
The sleeping Rinaldo Amida crowned with a garland, between 1750 and 1780
Oil on canvas
Height: 50.5 cm (19.9 in) Width: 120 cm (47.2 in)
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Francesco Zugno (c. 1708–1787) was an Italian painter of the Rococo period who had a successful career in Venice. Francesco Zugno was born in Venice in 1709 and probably died there in 1787. The Zugno were an ancient Venetian family and its members included artists such as the fifteenth century painter Giambattista Zugno. 

Few details about his life are known. He trained at the Academy of Painting and Sculpture of Venice. When he entered, on the advice of his father Zugno Faustin, in the workshop of Giambattista Tiepolo around 1730, Francesco already had a solid training as a painter. As a disciple and collaborator of Tiepolo, he realized between 1730 and 1737 several paintings. Amongst others, he collaborated with Tiepolo on the frescoes for the Palazzo Labia. He received his first commission for paintings for the convent church of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in Venice.

He was strongly influenced by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and his works. He was a founding academic of the Accademia of Venice. He was married in 1742. The Venetian painter Alessandro Longhi, who knew him well, said Zugno was inclined to melancholy and loneliness. More on Francesco Zugno

Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665)
The Companions of Rinaldo, circa 1633 - 1634
Oil on canvas
118.1 × 102.2 cm (46.5 × 40.2 in)
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), see above

Luca Giordano
The Knight, Carlo and Ubaldo find Rinaldo and Amida/ Renaud and Armide discovered by the knights

Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 12 January 1705) was an Italian late Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain.

Born in Naples, Giordano was the son of the painter Antonio Giordano. In around 1650 he was apprenticed to Ribera, and his early work was heavily influenced by his teacher. Like Ribera, he painted many half-length figures of philosophers, either imaginary portraits of specific figures, or generic types.

He acquired the nickname Luca fa presto, which translates into "Luca paints quickly." His speed, in design as well as handiwork, and his versatility, which enabled him to imitate other painters deceptively, earned for him two other epithets, "The Thunderbolt" (Fulmine) and "The Proteus" of painting.

Following a period studying in Rome, Parma and Venice, Giordano developed an elaborate Baroque style fusing Venetian and Roman Influences. His mature work combines the ornamental pomp of Paul Veronese with the lively complex schemes, the "grand manner", of Pietro da Cortona. He is also noted for his lively and showy use of colour. More Luca Giordano

Carlo and Ubaldo, two Christian knights and close companions of Rinaldo, seek out the hidden fortress, brave the dangers that guard it and find Rinaldo and Armida in each other's arms. By giving Rinaldo a mirror of diamond, they force him to see himself in his effeminate and amorous state and to return to the war, leaving Armida heartbroken.

Francesco Maffei (Italian (Venetian), about 1605 - 1660)
Rinaldo and the Mirror-Shield, c. 1650 - 1655
Oil on copper
29.8 × 34 cm (11 3/4 × 13 3/8 in.)
Getty Center, Museum South Pavilion

Francesco Maffei (1605 – 2 July 1660) was an Italian painter, active in the Baroque style. He probably trained in his birthplace of Vicenza with his father, and painted mostly in the towns of the Veneto. He died in Padua.

He is noted for his somewhat provincial stylistic quirks, combining the decorative manner of baroque with visual distortions and nervous brush strokes. His figures often glimmer with imprecise borders; a style which would characterize also the pittura de tocco e di macchia for decades. 

His canvases are often crowded with people and vigorous action. He was trained under the Mannerist painter, Alessandro Maganza, yet was influenced by a variety of painters. He is known to have traveled briefly to Venice in 1638, where he would have encountered the then brash new baroque painterly style. Maffei left Vicenza in 1657 and settled in Padua, where he died of the plague. He influenced a variety of painters, including Andrea Celesti (c1637-1711) and Antonio Bellucci (1654–1727), a mentor of Sebastiano Ricci. More on Francesco Maffei

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770
Rinaldo Observed By Carlo And Ubaldo, c.1750-1755
Oil, canvas
69 x 132 cm
Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770, see below

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian, 1696–1770
Armida Abandoned by Rinaldo, c. 1742/45
Oil on canvas
73 1/2 x 102 1/8 in
The Art Institute of Chicago

This painting shows the emotional climax of the story of Rinaldo and Armida. The knight Rinaldo has been persuaded by his companions, Carlo and Ubaldo, to renounce the love of the beautiful sorceress Armida. The gazes of the figures express the tension of the moment. Bareheaded and pensive, Rinaldo has taken up his arms again and appears to hesitate as the older knights gesture toward the boat that will carry them back to the crusader army. Armida tries vainly to detain him with her imploring gaze and provocatively bare, outstretched leg. More on this painting

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770. Born into a wealthy and noble family in Venice, Giambattista Tiepolo was recognized by contemporaries throughout Europe as the greatest painter of large-scale decorative frescoes in the 1700s. He was admired for having brought fresco painting to new heights of technical virtuosity, illumination, and dramatic effect. Tiepolo possessed an imagination characterized by one of his contemporaries as "all spirit and fire." 

A gifted storyteller, Tiepolo painted walls and ceilings with large, expansive scenes of intoxicating enchantment. In breath-taking visions of mythology and religion, the gods and saints inhabit light-filled skies. His ability to assimilate his predecessor and compatriot Paolo Veronese's use of color was so profound that his contemporaries named him Veronese redivio (a new Veronese). 

Tiepolo's commissions came from the old established families of Italy, religious orders, and the royal houses of Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. His frescoes adorn palaces, churches, and villas, and his artistic legacy consists of some eight hundred paintings, 2,400 drawings, two sets of etchings, and acres of fresco. When Tiepolo died at the age of seventy-four, a Venetian diarist noted the "bitter loss" of "the most famous Venetian painter, truly the most renowned...well known in Europe and the most highly praised in his native land." More on Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Rinaldo Leaving Armida, 1742-45

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770, see above

Rinaldo is shamed by fellow soldiers into abandoning Armida and recovering his masculine destiny as a warrior. Yet even here, Tiepolo cannot help contrast the older, bearded warriors flanking Rinaldo with the hero's perfect, youthful beauty and feminine elegance. Here we can see the triumph of eighteenth-century refinement, grace, and "feminine" beauty within the sphere of courtly masculinity, a trend equally visible in French Rococo painting by Watteau, Boucher, Lancret, and others. More


Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770
Rinaldo Abandoning Armida

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770, see above

Charles Errard,  (1606–1689)
Renaud abandonnant Armide/ Renaud abandoning Armidecirca 1640
Oil on canvas
243 × 338 cm (95.7 × 133.1 in)
Musée du Pays de Hanau, Bouxwiller

Charles Errard the Younger (1606–1689) was a French painter, architect and engraver, co-founder and director of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. Louis XIV's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert delegated to him the foundation of the French Academy in Rome in 1666, and he was its founding director from then until 1684 (apart from between 1673 and 1675, when he was replaced by Noël Coypel).

Charles Errard was trained as a painter by his father, Charles Errard the Elder, a court painter to Louis XIII. The son's long career as an artist in France was interrupted by several stays in Rome, going there to study with his father in 1625, equipped with a royal scholarship, and again in 1627. He drew ancient works of art as well as figures, busts, reliefs, ornament and Trajan's Column, as well as contemporary buildings. Soon he became a brilliant draughtsman.

After his return to Paris, he worked for different French art lovers and collectors. During a further stay in Rome, he became acquainted with Poussin and his patron Cassiano dal Pozzo, for whom he painted two pictures. In 1651 he produced illustrations after Poussin's sketches to Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato della Pittura. After his appointment as decorator of the royal palace, he received orders for the decoration of the Louvre Palace, the Palace of Fontainebleau (queen mother's suite), Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Versailles. 

On his death in Rome aged 82, he was buried in Santa Trinità dei Monti. More on Charles Errard the Younger

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, 
Rinaldo and the Magus of Ascalon, c. 1640-5

Paolo Domenico Finoglia, (1590–1645), see above

Rinaldo is deposited on a shore where he finds a shield and sword, and the "Wizard of Ascalon" shows him a vision of the future in the shield, including the glories of the House of Este. Rinaldo resolves to pursue the crusade with all his might.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Italian, 1696–1770
Rinaldo and the Magus of Ascalon, c. 1742/45
Oil on canvas
182.9 x 188 cm (72 x 74 in.)
The Art Institute of Chicago

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770, see above

Rinaldo rejoins the crusader army. As a consequence, it stresses the moral element of the story of Rinaldo and Armida. The boat bringing the knight from Armida’s island seems to have just deposited him and his companions, Carlo and Ubaldo, on the coast of Palestine. Here the magician of Ascalon uses Rinaldo’s shield to conjure up the heroic deeds of his ancestors, urging him to live up to their examples. Rinaldo appears more confident and mature. More on this painting

Armida is grief-stricken and raises an army to kill Rinaldo and fight the Christians, but her champions are all defeated. She attempts suicide, but Rinaldo finds her in time and prevents her. Rinaldo then begs her to convert to Christianity, and Armida, her heart softened, consents.

Giovanni Antonio Guardi, VIENNA 1699 - 1760 VENICE
RINALDO AND THE NYMPHS
oil on canvas
250 by 121 cm.; 98 1/2  by 47 3/4  in.
Private Collection

Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1699 – 23 January 1760), see above

Francesco Maffei (1600–1660)
Rinaldo’s Conquest of the Enchanted Forest, circa 1650-55
Oil on copper
29.8 × 34 cm (11 3/4 × 13 3/8 in.)
Getty Center

Francesco Maffei (1600–1660), see above

Rinaldo has entered the enchanted forest, where monstrous apparitions have prevented his men from gathering wood to build their war-machines. Earlier, his companions had rescued him from the sorceress Armida's garden, and now they in turn require his assistance. 

Workshop of Lorenzo Lippi (3 May 1606 – 15 April 1665)
Rinaldo in the enchanted forest, c. 1647/1650
Oil on canvas
286 x 183 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum

Lorenzo Lippi (3 May 1606 – 15 April 1665), see above

Tasso, Torquato, (1544-95)
Rinaldo in the Enchanted Forest, c. 1764
Oil on canvas
72 x 91 cm
Private collection

Torquato Tasso (Italian; 11 March 1544 – 25 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered, 1581), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem. He suffered from mental illness and died a few days before he was due to be crowned as the king of poets by the Pope. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Tasso remained one of the most widely read poets in Europe. More on Torquato Tasso

Giacinto Gimignani (1606–1681)
La rencontre de Renaud et Armide dans la Forêt enchantée/ The meeting of Renaud and Armide in the Enchanted Forest c. 1640
Oil on canvas
237 × 277 cm (93.3 × 109.1 in)
Musée du Pays de Hanau, Bouxwiller

Giacinto Gimignani (1606 – December 9, 1681) was an Italian painter, active mainly in Rome, during the Baroque period. He was also an engraver in aquaforte. Gimignani was born in Pistoia, where his father, Alessio (1567–1651) was also a painter and former pupil of Jacopo Ligozzi. Gimignani had been patronized by the prominent Guido Rospigliosi, Cardinal Secretary of State, and descendant of prominent Rospigliosi family of Pistoia bearing the same name.

By 1630 his father arranges his travel to Rome. In Rome, he competed with Camassei and Maratta for fresco commissions. He developed a classical style befitting the grand manner style developing in Rome. 

He joined the Accademia di San Luca in 1650. He married the daughter of the painter Alessandro Turchi of Verona. He spent his last years back in TuscanyMore on Giacinto Gimignani

Suddenly, hundreds of tree nymphs appear, surrounding Rinaldo, and the sorceress Armida appears from within a large myrtle tree, begging the knight to renew their love. His sword unsheathed, Rinaldo advances to strike the tree, thus overcoming the enchantment and enabling the Crusaders' liberation of Jerusalem to proceed. More

Eventually the enchantments are broken by Rinaldo, and the siege engines built.

After the enchantments on the forest are broken, finally the Crusaders breach the walls and take the city, with some Muslims remaining in the Temple Mount.

The Egyptian army is approaching.  Godfrey insists that the Crusaders rest for a day.  At dawn on the next day, Godfrey marches his army out of Jerusalem.  He gives a pre-battle pep talk to his army. The armies face off and the battle begins. Rinaldo encounters Armida but ignores her.  Though torn between Love and Wrath, she is restrained by her love from killing him.  Tancred rises from his sickbed to help Raymond, who is under attack.  Aladine is killed by Raymond and the tower of David is taken.  

Solyman knows death is near and is killed by Rinaldo.  The pagans flee.  Rinaldo comes to the aid of Armida, recalling that he had pledged himself as her knight when he parted from her.  She buries her arms and is considering suicide, but Rinaldo stops her, takes pity on her, and embraces her.  He promises to restore her to her royal throne and to be her champion.  She accepts him and professes to be his handmaid.  The slaughter of the pagans continues--the city has been liberated.  He goes to the temple and hangs up his arms, and "here devoutly adores the great Sepulcher, and discharges his vow." 





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