1744
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Dominant colour
Armida Abandoned by Rinaldo is a 1744 oil by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, a Baroque work, depicting Aeneas, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
A knight in shiny armor stands between two older men and a crying woman in a red dress. The men point toward a boat; the woman reaches for the knight’s hand. This is the moment Rinaldo leaves the sorceress Armida to rejoin the Crusades. Tiepolo freezes the split-second of doubt—Rinaldo’s helmet is off, his face half-lit, half-shadowed. The story comes from an old Italian poem, but the painting feels like a movie still. To see how light and shadow can tell a whole story, look up chiaroscuro.
The third scene from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s four-part suite of decorations , this painting shows the emotional climax of the story. The knight Rinaldo has been persuaded by his companions, Carlo and Ubaldo, to renounce the love of the sorceress Armida. Bareheaded and pensive, Rinaldo has taken up his shield again and appears to hesitate as the older knights gesture toward the boat that will carry them back to the crusader army and Armida implores him to stay.
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.
Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress, June 1 – November 1, 1933, no. 158. Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress, June 1 – November 1, 1934, no. 336. Art Institute of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by the two Tiepolos, February 4 – March 6, 1938, no. 8. Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Painting, November 4, 1950 – February 11, 1951, no. 35. Art Institute of Chicago, September 19 – November 8, 1970, Minneapolis, Institute of Arts, December 3, 1970 - January 10, 1971, and Toledo, Museum of Art, February 7 –…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, also known as Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school.
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