(Bologna 1654-1719) Rinaldo and Armida, pen and brown ink, on laid paper, 9 x 13,5 cm, mounted, unframed, (Sch)

The attribution to Gioseffo dal Sole was suggested by Dr. Nicholas Turner on the basis of a digital photography.

Literature:
Compare C. Thiem, Giovan Gioseffo dal Sole: dipinti, afreschi, disegni, Bologna 1990, p. 115, Q 32.

The subject was taken from the poem by Torquato Tasso "La Gerusalemme liberata - Das befreite Jerusalem" (1574, canto XVI, 17-25) and shows Christian born Rinaldo in the garden of the Saracene sorceress Armida. Instead of killing him she fell in love with Rinaldo. Giovan Gioseffo dal Sole repeatedly depicted this subject in several paintings during his career. In a painting with upright format in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (Inv. 215, Thiem 1990, p. 106, Q 23) Rinaldo is holding a mirror in his left hand and Armida is nestling up to him and adjusting her hair with the right raised hand. Another rectangular version of the subject is preserved in the Collezioni d'Arte della Casa di Risparmio in Bologna (Thiem 1990, p. 115, Q 32). The composition of present drawing which may originally not have been intended as an oval but rectangular format relates best to the rectangular painting and may have been executed in preparation of the painting. All paintings of dal Sole with the subject "Rinaldo und Armida" show a strong influence of Annibale Carracci’s rectangular composition of the same subject in the Museum Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples (c. 1601). The soldiers in the bushes in the background to the right who observe the couple may derive from Carracci’s model. Only few drawings and preliminary studies by dal Sole have survived; the most of them are monochrome bozzeti executed in oil which may have also been esteemed as autonomous works. Two comparable studies in red chalk and charcoal showing each "Pompeys Wife learning about the killing of her husband“ and „John the Baptist“ are preserved in the Fondazione Cini in Venice (Thiem 1990, p. 184, Nr. D 7). Two paintings with the same subject in the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzeso, Milan and in the Collezioni d'Arte, Cassa di Risparmio, Bologna show a similar composition.