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Lot Essay
Giovanni Francesco Romanelli was born in Viterbo (hence his sobriquet, 'il Viterbese') and trained in Rome in two of the capital's most successful workshops. He was first recorded as a pupil of Domenichino and, in 1631, as an assistant to Pietro da Cortona on the decoration of the Palazzo Barberini. These early ties with the Barberini family led to his first independent commission, a frescoed overdoor of Saint Peter healing the Sick in Saint Peter's for the Barberini pope, Urban VIII (1636-7). In Rome Romanelli also found inspiration in the works of Poussin and Bernini, the latter employing him to execute some of his designs for the decoration of, among others, the Cappella Raimondi in the church of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome.
In 1646, with the help of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, Romanelli was summoned to Paris for two years by the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria. There he worked on the decoration of the Hôtel Lambert alongside Eustache Le Sueur, who may have introduced Romanelli to the recently completed Rinaldo and Armida series in the Hôtel de Bullion by his master, Simon Vouet (1630s; formerly Paris, collection of M. Guyot de Villeneuve; fig. 1). Vouet's classical representation of Tasso's seductive virgin witch employed by Satan to undermine the efforts of the Crusaders may have informed Romanelli's interpretation of the ill-fated lovers in the present work. Here the focus is on Prince Rinaldo, who must abandon the enamored Armida for the sake of his military responsiblities. In a futile effort to keep her lover, the sorceress attempts to take her own life, only to be stymied by Rinaldo's desperate intervention.
We are grateful to Dr. Ursula Fischer Pace for confirming the attribution to Romanelli on the basis of a color transparency (verbal communication, 8 April 2005).
In 1646, with the help of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, Romanelli was summoned to Paris for two years by the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria. There he worked on the decoration of the Hôtel Lambert alongside Eustache Le Sueur, who may have introduced Romanelli to the recently completed Rinaldo and Armida series in the Hôtel de Bullion by his master, Simon Vouet (1630s; formerly Paris, collection of M. Guyot de Villeneuve; fig. 1). Vouet's classical representation of Tasso's seductive virgin witch employed by Satan to undermine the efforts of the Crusaders may have informed Romanelli's interpretation of the ill-fated lovers in the present work. Here the focus is on Prince Rinaldo, who must abandon the enamored Armida for the sake of his military responsiblities. In a futile effort to keep her lover, the sorceress attempts to take her own life, only to be stymied by Rinaldo's desperate intervention.
We are grateful to Dr. Ursula Fischer Pace for confirming the attribution to Romanelli on the basis of a color transparency (verbal communication, 8 April 2005).