Currently not on view
Rinaldo and Armida,
1730s
Carle van Loo, French, 1705–1765
y1933-23
Van Loo made his reputation in the 1730s with a painted room for the Royal Palace in Turin, Italy, showing scenes from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem in Italian, Jerusalem Delivered (1580). This sketch returns to the climax of that tale. The knight Rinaldo, a participant in the First Crusade to recapture Jerusalem from the infidels, is taken by the Saracen sorceress Armida to her garden on an enchanted island. There, amidst the pleasures of love, he forgets his mission. Only when his friends Carlo and Ubaldo find him, show him his reflection in a polished shield, and remind him of his duties as a knight does he return to the Christian army. Here Rinaldo is shown in chains woven of flowers, indolent and unmanned. The pleasant and moralizing story of Rinaldo and Armida was a favorite theme for courtly paintings, tapestries, festivals, and operas.
Information
Title
Rinaldo and Armida
Dates
1730s
Maker
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
41.5 × 49 cm (16 5/16 × 19 5/16 in.)
frame: 56.5 × 64.5 × 7 cm (22 1/4 × 25 3/8 × 2 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Object Number
y1933-23
Signatures
Signed lower right: Carle Vanloo
Marks/Labels/Seals
Three stamps on back, one possibly German or Austrian
Culture
Type
Palace of Gatschina, Russia (information supplied by dealer); Seligmann, Rey and Co., New York; museum purchase
- Rensselaer W. Lee, "Vanloo's "Rinaldo and Armida" in the Princeton Museum", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 19, no. 1 (1960): p. 44-49., fig. 2, p. 47 (illus.)
- MIchael Levey, Rococo to Revolution: major trends in eighteenth-century painting, (New York: Praeger, 1966)., p. 48, fig. 26
- Marie-Catherine Sahut, Carle Vanloo: premier peintre du roi, (Nice, France?: Musee Cheret?, 1977)., p. 57, no. 90 (illus.)
- Marion L. Grayson, Fragonard & his friends: changing ideals in eighteenth century art: Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, November 20, 1982 through February 6, 1983, (St. Petersburg, FL: Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, 1982)., no. 46 (illus.)
- Colin B. Bailey, The first painters of the King: French royal taste from Louis XIV to the Revolution, (New York: Stair Sainty Matthiesen, 1985)., p. 140, no. 136 (illus.)
