Armida Abandoned by Rinaldo

1742/45

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Italian, 1696–1770

The third scene from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s four-part suite of decorations, this painting shows the emotional climax of the story. The knight Rinaldo has been persuaded by his companions, Carlo and Ubaldo, to renounce the love of the sorceress Armida. Bareheaded and pensive, Rinaldo has taken up his shield again and appears to hesitate as the older knights gesture toward the boat that will carry them back to the crusader army and Armida implores him to stay.

Status: On View, Gallery 215
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Giambattista Tiepolo
Title: Armida Abandoned by Rinaldo
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality)
Date: 1742–1745
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 186.7 × 259.4 cm (73 1/2 × 102 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of James Deering
Reference Number: 1925.701
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16492/manifest.json

Pompeo Molmenti, G. B. Tiepolo: La sua Vita e le sue Opere (Milan, 1909), pp. 140-141, 145-147, 156, ill. (French trans. H. L. de Perera, Tiepolo, La vie et l’œuvre du peintre (1911), pp. 188-189, 308, nos. 186-189, pls. 186-88).
Ugo Ojetti, “Le quattro tele del Tiepolo trafugate”, Emporium 36 (July 1912): pp. 64-69, ill.
Camille Mauclair, “Exposition de Quelques Chefs-d’Oeuvre de G. B. Tiepolo,” in Dix Chefs-d’œuvre de G. B. Tiepolo exposés a la Galeries Ch. Sedelmeyer (Paris, 1912-3), pp. 5-34.
Helen Parker, ed., Arno Art Studies: A Course in Picture Appreciation, vol. 1 (Chicago, 1930), pp. 208, 211.
Michael Levey, “Review of Antonio Morassi: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings of G. B. Tiepolo,” The Art Bulletin 45 (1963), p. 294.
Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84 (1966), pp. 204-206.
Mercedes Precerutti Garberi, affreschi settecenteschi delle ville Venete (Milan, 1968), p. 360.
George Knox, Catalogue of the Tiepolo Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 1975), p. 80.
National Gallery of Canada, Tiepolo: etchings by the Tiepolos (Ottawa, 1976), pp. 66-67.
John D. Morse, Old Master Paintings in North America (New York, 1979), pp. 255-256.
Claudia Lazzaro, Eighteenth-Century Italian Prints (Stanford, 1980), pp. 28-29.
James N. Wood, Teri J. Edelstein, and Sally Ruth May, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide, first ed. (Chicago, 1993), p. 139.
Sotheby’s, Old Master Paintings: October 8, 1993 (New York, 1993), under no. 234.
Giovanni Da Pozzo, ed., La ragione e l’arte: Torquato Tasso e la Repubblica Veneta (Venice, 1995), pp. 235-236.
Nicola Knorn, “Tiepolos »Rinaldo und Armida«-Szenen in der Würzburger Residenz,” Pantheon 53 (1995): pp. 102-105, ill.
Paul Jeromack, “Review of “The Glory of Venice,” National Gallery of Art,” in ArtNews 94 (April 1995), p. 151.
Bernard Aikema and Marguerite Tuijn, Tiepolo in Holland: Works by Giambattista Tiepolo and His Circle in Dutch Collections (Rotterdam, 1996), pp. 152, 154, ill.
Peter O. Krückmann, ed., Der Himmel auf Erden: Tiepolo in Würzburg, vol. I (Munich, 1996), p. 155.
Melania Lunazzi and Isabella di Montegnacco, Giambattista Tiepolo: Guida alle opere nel Veneto (Venice, 1996), p. 103.
Bernard Aikema, Tiepolo and His Circle: Drawings in American Collections (New York, 1996), p. 156.
Giuseppe Barbieri, “Tre storie vicentine di Giambattista Tiepolo,” in Tiepolo e la vita in villa: Arte e cultura nel Settecento veneto, ed. Gian Antonio Cibotto , et al. (Venice, 1996), p. 65.
Adriano Mariuz and Giuseppe Pavanello, “The Interior Decoration of Palaces in Venice: From Baroque Magnificence to Rococo Elegance,” in Venice: Art & Architecture, Volume II, ed. Giandomenico Romanelli (New York, 1997), pp. 628-629, ill.
Adriano Mariuz, “Gli amori di Rinaldo e Armida nell’interpretazione di Tiepolo,” in Formazione e fortuna del Tasso nella cultura della Serenissima: atti del Convegno di studi nel IV centenario della morte di Torquato Tasso (1595-1995): Padova-Venezia, 10-11 novembre 1995, ed. Lucian Borsetto and Bianca Maria Da Rif (Venice, 1997), pp. 212, 223-224, ill.
Keith Christiansen, “Europe 1700 – 1900,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s. 55 (Autumn, 1997), p. 41.
Giandomenico Romanelli and Filippo Pedrocco, Lorenzo Tiepolo e il suo tempo (Milan, 1997), p. 132.
Justyna Guze, Tiepolo i tiepoleschi: w zbiorach polskich: rysunki, ryciny, obrazy (Warsaw, 1997), p. XLVIII, ill.
Peter Partner, God of Battles: Holy Wars of Christianity and Islam (Princeton, 1997), p. 285.
Keith Christiansen, “Tiepolo et sa famille en Europe,” in Histoire Artistique de L’Europe: Le XVIIIe Siècle, vol. 3, ed. Thomas W. Gaehtgens and Krzysztof Pomian (Paris, 1998), p. 195.
Lionello Puppi, ed., Giambattista Tiepolo: Nel Terzo Centenario della Nascita. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi (Venezia - Vicenza - Udine - Parigi, 29 ottobre - 4 novembre 1996) (Quaderni di Venezia Arti, 4) (Venice, 1998), vol. II, p. 82, ill.
Keith Christiansen, “Tiepolo, Theater, and the Notion of Theatricality,” The Art Bulletin 81 (1999), pp. 684, 692.
Keith Christiansen, “Giambattista Tiepolo. Paris,” Burlington Magazine 141 (1999), p. 245
Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago, second ed. (Chicago, 1999), p. 36.
Christie’s, Important Old Master Paintings: January 27, 2000 (New York, 2000), under no. 84.
George Knox and Jacques van Schoor, Le Menuet de Lorenzo Tiepolo (Sarreguemines, 2001), p. 19.
Stefano Zuffi, ed., Arte e erotismo (Milan, 2001), pp. 290-291, ill. (English trans. Stephen Sartarelli, Love and the Erotic in Art (2010), p. 366.)
Filippo Pedrocco, Giambattista Tiepolo (Milan, 2002), pp. 248-249, ill.
Filippo Pedrocco, The Art of Venice: From Its Origins to 1797 (Florence, 2002), pp. 162-163.
Jaynie Anderson, Tiepolo’s Cleopatra (Melbourne, 2003), pp. 87, 186.
Julius Bryant, Kenwood: Paintings in the Iveagh Bequest (New Haven, 2003), p. 138.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Essential Guide, revised ed. (Chicago, 2003), p. 138.
Jeannine Guérin Dalle Mese, “Armide découvre Renaud endormi,” in Les belles infidèles de la Jérusalem délivrée: la fortune du poème du Tasse, XVIe-XXe siècle, ed. Raymond Abbrugiati and José Guidi (Marseille, 2004), pp. 160-164.
Giovanni Careri, Geste d’amour et de guerre: La Jérusalem délivrée, images et affects (Paris, 2005), pp. 201, 203, fig. 55, ill. (Italian trans. Giovanni Careri, La fabbrica degli affetti : La Gerusalemme liberata dai Carracci a Tiepolo, 2010, pp. 181-183, fig. 55, ill.)
Sylvie Mamy, L’Allée de Mélisande: Les jardins et la musique (Paris, 2004), pp. 40, 42, 46, 50, plate VII, ill.
Everett Fahy, ed., The Wrightsman Pictures (New Haven, 2005), p. 92.
Alexis Merle du Bourg, “Les grands thèmes tirés de La Jérusalem délivrée du Tasse dans la peinture (XVIe-XIXe siècles): Renaud (chant I-chant XIV),” L’Estampille/L’Object d’Art no. 412 (2006), p. 22.
Alexis Merle du Bourg, “Les grands thèmes tirés de La Jérusalem délivrée du Tasse dans la peinture (XVIe-XIXe siècles): Renaud (chants XV et XVI),” L’Estampille/L’Object d’Art no. 413 (2006), p. 20.
Alexis Merle du Bourg, “Les grands thèmes tirés de La Jérusalem délivrée du Tasse dans la peinture (XVIe-XIXe siècles): Renaud et Armide (fin du chant XVI),” L’Estampille/L’Object d’Art no. 414 (2006), p. 20, ill.
Alexis Merle du Bourg, “Les grands thèmes tirés de La Jérusalem délivrée du Tasse dans la peinture (XVIe-XIXe siècles): Renaud et Armide (chants XVII et XVIII),” L’Estampille/L’Object d’Art no. 415 (2006), p. 20.
Victor M. Cassidy, “Revisiting the Permanent Collection,” Chicago Life Magazine (Summer 2006): p. 20, ill.
Roberto Calasso, Il Rosa Tiepolo (Milan, 2006), pp. 83-84. (English trans. Alastair McEwen, Tiepolo Pink (2010), p. 67.)
Gregg Bordowitz, “Admissions,” in Considering Forgiveness, ed. Aleksandra Wagner and Carin Kuoni (New York, 2007), pp. 231-237, ill.
Rodolfo Pallucchini, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., s.v. “Giovanni Battista Tiepolo” (Chicago, 2007), p. 764.
Nils Büttner, The History of Gardens in Painting, trans. Russell Stockman (New York, 2008), p. 106.
Norma Broude, “G. B. Tiepolo at Valmarana: Gender Ideology in a Patrician Villa of the Settecento,” The Art Bulletin 91 (2009), pp. 160, 181.
Torquato Tasso, The Liberation of Jerusalem (Gerusalemme liberata), trans. Max Wickert (Oxford, 2009), pp. xix, 403.
Charles Brockden Brown, Ormond; or The Secret Witness, ed. Philip Barnard and Stephen Shapiro (Indianapolis, 2009), p. 358.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Essential Guide, third ed. (Chicago, 2009), p. 200.
Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago, third ed. (Chicago, 2009), p. 36.
Hardy George, ed., La Serenissima: Eighteenth-Century Venetian Art from North American Collections (Oklahoma City, 2010), pp. 23-25, ill., 27-28.
Douglas Druick, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide, fourth ed. (Chicago, 2013), p. 214.

Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress, June 1 – November 1, 1933, no. 158.
Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress, June 1 – November 1, 1934, no. 336.
Art Institute of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by the two Tiepolos, February 4 – March 6, 1938, no. 8.
Philadelphia, Museum of Art, Diamond Jubilee Exhibition: Masterpieces of Painting, November 4, 1950 – February 11, 1951, no. 35.
Art Institute of Chicago, September 19 – November 8, 1970, Minneapolis, Institute of Arts, December 3, 1970 - January 10, 1971, and Toledo, Museum of Art, February 7 – March 21, 1971, Painting in Italy in the Eighteenth Century, no. 42.
Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico, Giambattista Tiepolo, September 5-December 15, 1996, cat. 17c; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 24 – April 27, 1997 [New York only].
Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, Giambattista Tiepolo, October 22, 1998 – January 24, 1999, no. 36.

Possibly one of four scenes from Tasso made for the ‘gabinetto degli specchi’ of the Palazzo Corner a San Polo, Venice [according to inventories and other documents discussed by Romanelli 1998]. Count Giovanni Serbelloni, Venice in 1838; by descent, until possibly 1886 [Molmenti 1911 and Knox 1978]. Giulio Cartier, Genoa by 1908 [Malaquzzi Valeri 1908]; Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris, in 1912 [Ojetti 1912]; James Deering (d. 1925), Vizcaya, from 1913 [information sheet in curatorial file]; bequeathed, 1925.

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