Rinaldo and Armida on the battlefield,
oil on canvas, 74 x 292.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Collection of Cardinal Pompeo Aldrovandi (1668–1752), Rome, 1736;
Private European collection

Documented:
possibly Inventario delle Pitture, e Statue esistenti nell’Appartamento dell’Emo, e Rmo Sig: Carde,: Pompeo Aldrovandi, 1736, Tom: 78, no. 12, fol. 13, Quinta Stanza, no. 124: ‘Due Quadri assai bislunghi, rappresentanti uno La Battaglia d’Armida con Rinaldo, L’altro la Liberazione de due Condannat ad esser abbruciati, e liberati da Arminia, favole del Tasso, di mano di Michelangelo delle Battaglie’

The present painting illustrates the encounter between the crusader Rinaldo and the sorceress Armida, taken from Torquato Tasso’s poem La Gerusalemme liberata which was a popular subject throughout Europe until the end of the 18th century.

In the final battle between Christians and pagans the two lovers meet on the battlefield (canto XX, stanza LXI and LXII):

[…] sul carro aurato,
Stavasi Armida in militar sembianti:
E nobil guardia avea da ciascun lato
De’ baroni seguaci, e degli amanti.
Noto a più segni, egli è da lei mirato
Con occhj d’ira e di desio tremanti.
Ei si tramuta in volto un cotal poco:
Ella si fa di gel, divien poi foco.
[…] Ella stessa in sull’arco ha già lo strale.
Spingea le mani e incrudelia lo sdegno:
Ma le placava, e n’era Amor ritegno.

[…] On the haloed chariot,
Armida stood in military semblance:
And noble guard she had on each side
Of barons followers, and of lovers.
Noticed by many signs, he is looked upon by her
With eyes of wrath and trembling desire.
He changes his face a little:
She turns to ice, then to fire.
[...] She herself already has her arrow
in her bow. She thrust out her hands, and incensed her disdain:
But she appeased them, and it was Amor‘s restraint.

Following the literary source, in the present work, Armida is shown in armour in the chariot, on the left side of the painting, drawing her bow towards Rinaldo. Rinaldo, a distinguished soldier and leader of the Christian troops, appears in full armour on horseback, raising his sabre in order to fight two pagans in the centre of the composition. Diagonally above the pagan sorceress, Cupid aims his bow at her, in order to prevent her arrows from fatally striking Rinaldo. The depiction of this aspect of the subject appears to be unique: while artists usually illustrated the episode of Rinaldo and Armida on the enchanted island, here the moment of highest tension was chosen: the possible death of the couple on the battlefield.

The horizontal format of the painting suggests its purpose as an supraporte, probably as part of a cycle along with other episodes from Tasso’s poem. The format underlines the narrative of the painting and is reminiscent of ancient battle friezes.

In the first decades of the 17th century, when much of Europe was severely shaken by the violent unfolding of the Thirty Years’ War, Italy, in contrast, enjoyed a period of stable peace – and it was during this unusually quiet interlude that the new pictorial genre of the battle scene became increasingly popular. Paintings depicting battle scenes enjoyed success amongst Roman and Neapolitan aristocratic collectors who liked to adorn the walls of their salons with battles depicting single acts of heroism or complex combats that exalted patriotism and warlike prowess, virtues with which they wished to identify. The Catholic Church was also at the forefront of commissions, appointing artists to depict the spectacular triumphs of Christianity over the infidels, this becoming a repeated iconographic motif of full devotional value.

Under the influence of artists such as Aniello Falcone and Salvator Rosa, themselves influenced by the French classicists Nicholas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, a number of successful battle painters emerged in Rome and Naples in the course of the 17th century, including Jacques Curtois, il Borgognone, Andrea di Lione or Francesco Allegrini da Gubbio.