Rinaldo and the Magus of Ascalon

1742/45

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, 1696–1770)

The fourth and final large narrative canvas from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s decorative suite stresses the moral of the story and takes place as Rinaldo rejoins the crusader army. The boat bringing the knight from Armida’s island has just deposited him on the coast of Palestine. The magician of Ascalon uses Rinaldo’s shield to conjure the heroic deeds of his ancestors, urging him to live up to their legacy. In contrast to earlier canvases in the sequence, the young knight appears focused on his mission. In his choice to return to battle, the figure of Rinaldo would have served as a positive example of civic duty for the family who commissioned these decorations.

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

Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Title: Rinaldo and the Magus of Ascalon
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1742–1745
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 182.9 × 188 cm (72 × 74 in.); Framed: 194 × 190.2 × 7.6 cm (76 3/8 × 74 7/8 × 3 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of James Deering
Reference Number: 1925.702
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/16495/manifest.json

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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. 31, ill., 235-236.
Nicola Knorn, “Tiepolos »Rinaldo und Armida«-Szenen in der Würzburger Residenz,” Pantheon 53 (1995): pp. 102-105.
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Bernard Aikema and Marguerite Tuijn, Tiepolo in Holland: Works by Giambattista Tiepolo and His Circle in Dutch Collections (Rotterdam, 1996), pp. 152, 154.
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), p. 212.
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.
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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.
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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
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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.)
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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.
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Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress, June 1 – November 1, 1933, no. 159.
Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress, June 1 – November 1, 1934, no. 337.
Art Institute of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by the two Tiepolos, February 4 – March 6, 1938, no. 9.
Udine, Villa Manin di Passariano, Mostra del Tiepolo, June 27 – October 31, 1971, no. 61.
Venice, Ca’ Rezzonico, Giambattista Tiepolo, September 5-December 15, 1996, cat. 17d; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 24 – April 27, 1997.

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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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.

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