(Siena 1606–1651 Rome)
Erminia and Tancredi,
oil on canvas, 134 x 186 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection, 1979;
where acquired by the present owner

The present composition is an episode from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata (Canto XIX) and is represented with a freedom of interpretation. The work has a naturalistic realism and shows Erminia caring for Tancredi, wounded after his duel with Argante, whose lifeless body lies on the right. The oriental figure wearing a turban, leaning out from the left side, is Vafrino and can be compared to Guercino’s painting of the same subject in the Galleria Doria Pamphilij, Rome (inv. no. FC 459).

The dynamic monumentality of the composition, the choice of colours, such as indigo, together with the fluid brushstrokes, suggest that this painting may be Tuscan, possibly painted in Siena and Pisa by, an as yet unidentified, artist influenced and working with Niccolò Tornioli (1598–1651) and where this literary work was popular subject for artists of the period (see P. Betti, La fortuna della gerusalemme Liberata nella pittura del Seicento e del Settecento a Lucca, in: Rivista di archeologia, storia, costume, 41, 2013, pp. 25–80).