Scuola Genovese del XVII secolo

The canvas, of great quality and pleasantness, depicts Rinaldo and Armida, according to an episode described in the Gerusalemme Liberata, the famous heroic poem by Torquato Tasso which had so much success since its publication in 1581. The crusader Rinaldo is caught in the moment in which , looking at himself, he awakens from the torpor of the seduction in which he languished under the control of the sorceress Armida, brought back to duty by his companions Carlo and Ubaldo. The pictorial ductus and the colors refer to a Genoese artist influenced by the formal models of Titian painting and active in the last quarter of the sixteenth century, coinciding with the publication of the famous poem by Tasso. A comparison with the canvas with the representation of a Judgment of Paris, preserved at the Galleria Spada in Rome, and considered by the literature as the work of an "anonymous Genoese of the sixteenth century" may be useful: it does not seem unreasonable to hypothesize the same authorship for both paintings. Even a juxtaposition with the famous painting depicting a woman in oriental clothing, preserved at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art (Sarasota, Florida) and considered a work by Titian's workshop, seems useful in suggesting possible clues about the author's context: analogies can be found in the pictorial matter, especially in the vicinity of the sky and vegetation area.

Olio su tela

cm 79x67 - in cornice: 106x95