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Lot Essay
Tiepolo undertook three series of paintings illustrating the bittersweet tale of the romance of Rinaldo and Armida: in the early 1740s, in a suite of large, decorative canvases made for the Palazzo Dolfin Manin in Venice (and now in the Art Institute of Chicago); a decade later, around 1752 or 1753, in a pair of overdoors executed for the prince-bishop's Residenz in Wrzburg (Residenz, Wrzburg); and in frescoes on the walls of the Villa Valmarana, Vicenza (in situ) in 1757. The present oil sketch -- although it differs in significant ways from the final painting -- appears to be a modello for the Rinaldo abandoning Armida that is one of Tiepolo's paintings at Wrzburg (fig. 1).
The story of Rinaldo and Armida is told in a few stanzas of the celebrated epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso (1544-95), first published in 1581. One of the most widely read works of chivalric poetry and an enduring masterpiece of Italian literature, Gerusalemme Liberata (or Jerusalem Delivered) is an idealized retelling of the first Crusade, which ends with the liberation of the city of Jerusalem from the control of the Saracens in 1099, and the establishment of a Christian kingdom. In Tasso's tale, Armida -- a beautiful virgin sorceress from Damascus -- is sent by Satan (whose help the Saracens had enlisted) to sow the seeds of confusion and discontent in the Christian army. Armida swears revenge on the Este prince Rinaldo after he rescues ten of his comrades whom she had changed into monsters. But at the sight of the beautiful Christian knight, Armida falls in love with him and spirits away his sleeping body to her enchanted garden on the Fortunate Isle, where she holds him prisoner. Bound by the spell cast from a magic mirror, Rinaldo is seduced into sharing her ardor. But after only a brief idyll, the lovers are found by Rinaldo's companions-in-arms, the knights Carlo and Ubaldo, who break the sorceress's spell and recall the prince to duty. Reluctantly, and despite Armida's piteous pleas, he deserts her to return to the Crusade.
The present oil sketch forms a pair with Rinaldo and Armida in the enchanted garden (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; fig. 2), a sketch of identical dimensions that depicts an earlier episode in Tasso's story, when the astonished Carlo and Ubaldo first happen upon the lovers in intimate embrace. Like the present work, it seems to be a modello for the painting of the same subject executed by Tiepolo in 1752-3 for the Residenz in Wrzburg. Although the two oil sketches have long been recognized as a pair and have generally been associated with the Wrzburg commission of the same subjects, both differ considerably from the final paintings. The sketches are delicately drawn with a nimble brush in deft, flickering strokes of pale, liquid paint. The figures are comparatively small and set in broad, sweeping, light-filled landscapes that allow Tiepolo to excercise his genius for recreating the warm, sun-dappled landscape of his native Veneto. The Wrzburg canvases -- which measure 105 x 140 cm each -- evoke an entirely different mood, however. In them, Tiepolo created monumental figures that are grand in scale and noble of disposition and, one must acknowledge, a little ponderous in their effect. The figures fill the canvases to the detriment of the landscape settings, which are considerably compressed, with a diminished sense of light and space. It is probable, as Beverly Brown has hypothesized, that Tiepolo was compelled to alter his designs to fit a specific location in the Residenz that was selected only after he had already painted the modelli.
Nevertheless, the possibility -- raised by Lorenzetti (1951), Morassi (1962), and Rizzi (1971) -- that the present Rinaldo abandoning Armida and its companion are not models for the Wrzburg paintings but free variations after them made by Tiepolo several years later, cannot be entirely dismissed, unlikely though it seems. The differences between the present sketch and its corollary at Wrzburg (fig. 1) are striking: in addition to the changes already mentioned, Tiepolo eliminated from the Wrzburg painting the boat and oarsman on the right of the sketch that appear poised at the ready to take Rinaldo back to his troops; and he reversed the positions of all the principal figures. However dramatic this last compositional alteration, it did serve to turn the Wrzburg painting into a more responsive pendant to its mate: whatever loss of vigor may have occured in the translation of the sketches into finished paintings, the adjustments made to the Wrzburg compositions served to integrate them more successfully as a pair.
The greatest difference between Tiepolo's modelli and the final paintings occurs in the respective moods they project. The Wrzburg paintings are sober and rhetorical, befitting a tale in which righteousness triumphs over evil and personal wishes are sacrified to honor and duty. The sketches evince a lightness and vitality independent of the story they illustrate, and this is achieved largely through the vivacity of Tiepolo's painterly touch, which was unequaled by any European artist of his day, save Fragonard. The present sketch and its pendant, as Beverly Brown observed (loc. cit.), are 'of unsurpassable quality, drawn with an exquisite sensibility that is both various and complex. The line is delicate and restless in movement. The color is no less extraordinary in its complexity and richness, so that even on this small scale its effect is opulent. The cream-colored grounds enhance the shimmering effect of light. The draperies are lush -- whether pearly pink, citron yellow, or fiery red -- with smooth, fluid strokes of various melded hues, creating a magical aura about each figure. The verdant landscapes vibrate in consonance with the figures that they surround. As on many occasions before, Tiepolo has been able to manipulate the attitudes and expressions of his actors so that their communication with each other and with the viewer is at once delicate and passionate. There is in these sketches a quality of surface and of sentiment that brings Tiepolo close to the finest examples of the contemporary rococo style in France...'.
It is the unconcealed joy that he finds in the very act of painting which Tiepolo brings to the most sorrowful of scenes: Even as a gaping Armida raises an open palm in a gesture of incohate grief to her departing lover, who himself all but collapses in despair into the arms of his compatriots, it is impossible not to feel a surge of delight at the magical virtuosity with which Tiepolo brings his tragedy to life.
The story of Rinaldo and Armida is told in a few stanzas of the celebrated epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso (1544-95), first published in 1581. One of the most widely read works of chivalric poetry and an enduring masterpiece of Italian literature, Gerusalemme Liberata (or Jerusalem Delivered) is an idealized retelling of the first Crusade, which ends with the liberation of the city of Jerusalem from the control of the Saracens in 1099, and the establishment of a Christian kingdom. In Tasso's tale, Armida -- a beautiful virgin sorceress from Damascus -- is sent by Satan (whose help the Saracens had enlisted) to sow the seeds of confusion and discontent in the Christian army. Armida swears revenge on the Este prince Rinaldo after he rescues ten of his comrades whom she had changed into monsters. But at the sight of the beautiful Christian knight, Armida falls in love with him and spirits away his sleeping body to her enchanted garden on the Fortunate Isle, where she holds him prisoner. Bound by the spell cast from a magic mirror, Rinaldo is seduced into sharing her ardor. But after only a brief idyll, the lovers are found by Rinaldo's companions-in-arms, the knights Carlo and Ubaldo, who break the sorceress's spell and recall the prince to duty. Reluctantly, and despite Armida's piteous pleas, he deserts her to return to the Crusade.
The present oil sketch forms a pair with Rinaldo and Armida in the enchanted garden (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; fig. 2), a sketch of identical dimensions that depicts an earlier episode in Tasso's story, when the astonished Carlo and Ubaldo first happen upon the lovers in intimate embrace. Like the present work, it seems to be a modello for the painting of the same subject executed by Tiepolo in 1752-3 for the Residenz in Wrzburg. Although the two oil sketches have long been recognized as a pair and have generally been associated with the Wrzburg commission of the same subjects, both differ considerably from the final paintings. The sketches are delicately drawn with a nimble brush in deft, flickering strokes of pale, liquid paint. The figures are comparatively small and set in broad, sweeping, light-filled landscapes that allow Tiepolo to excercise his genius for recreating the warm, sun-dappled landscape of his native Veneto. The Wrzburg canvases -- which measure 105 x 140 cm each -- evoke an entirely different mood, however. In them, Tiepolo created monumental figures that are grand in scale and noble of disposition and, one must acknowledge, a little ponderous in their effect. The figures fill the canvases to the detriment of the landscape settings, which are considerably compressed, with a diminished sense of light and space. It is probable, as Beverly Brown has hypothesized, that Tiepolo was compelled to alter his designs to fit a specific location in the Residenz that was selected only after he had already painted the modelli.
Nevertheless, the possibility -- raised by Lorenzetti (1951), Morassi (1962), and Rizzi (1971) -- that the present Rinaldo abandoning Armida and its companion are not models for the Wrzburg paintings but free variations after them made by Tiepolo several years later, cannot be entirely dismissed, unlikely though it seems. The differences between the present sketch and its corollary at Wrzburg (fig. 1) are striking: in addition to the changes already mentioned, Tiepolo eliminated from the Wrzburg painting the boat and oarsman on the right of the sketch that appear poised at the ready to take Rinaldo back to his troops; and he reversed the positions of all the principal figures. However dramatic this last compositional alteration, it did serve to turn the Wrzburg painting into a more responsive pendant to its mate: whatever loss of vigor may have occured in the translation of the sketches into finished paintings, the adjustments made to the Wrzburg compositions served to integrate them more successfully as a pair.
The greatest difference between Tiepolo's modelli and the final paintings occurs in the respective moods they project. The Wrzburg paintings are sober and rhetorical, befitting a tale in which righteousness triumphs over evil and personal wishes are sacrified to honor and duty. The sketches evince a lightness and vitality independent of the story they illustrate, and this is achieved largely through the vivacity of Tiepolo's painterly touch, which was unequaled by any European artist of his day, save Fragonard. The present sketch and its pendant, as Beverly Brown observed (loc. cit.), are 'of unsurpassable quality, drawn with an exquisite sensibility that is both various and complex. The line is delicate and restless in movement. The color is no less extraordinary in its complexity and richness, so that even on this small scale its effect is opulent. The cream-colored grounds enhance the shimmering effect of light. The draperies are lush -- whether pearly pink, citron yellow, or fiery red -- with smooth, fluid strokes of various melded hues, creating a magical aura about each figure. The verdant landscapes vibrate in consonance with the figures that they surround. As on many occasions before, Tiepolo has been able to manipulate the attitudes and expressions of his actors so that their communication with each other and with the viewer is at once delicate and passionate. There is in these sketches a quality of surface and of sentiment that brings Tiepolo close to the finest examples of the contemporary rococo style in France...'.
It is the unconcealed joy that he finds in the very act of painting which Tiepolo brings to the most sorrowful of scenes: Even as a gaping Armida raises an open palm in a gesture of incohate grief to her departing lover, who himself all but collapses in despair into the arms of his compatriots, it is impossible not to feel a surge of delight at the magical virtuosity with which Tiepolo brings his tragedy to life.