Plate 17: Illustration to Canto XVII, from Torquato Tasso's 'Gerusalemme liberata III'

Art Historical Context

This etching by Antonio Tempesta divides the sheet into two distinct zones. The upper register presents an ornate cartouche filled with Italian verse, framed by figures including winged putti, a helmeted woman, and a male figure in classical drapery. Below, the main scene depicts a crowded military encampment: mounted soldiers and foot troops move among rows of tents, while archers and figures in armor occupy the foreground against a backdrop of a walled city and distant hills. Fine, closely hatched lines and swirling contours convey motion and depth in black and white. Tempesta, active in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Rome, specialized in energetic battle subjects and book illustrations. This plate belongs to a series he produced for Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Gerusalemme liberata, specifically illustrating events of Canto XVII. The work captures the poem’s blend of historical crusade narrative and romantic adventure, offering viewers a vivid glimpse of the chivalric world Tasso evoked for his Renaissance audience.

About the Artist

Antonio Tempesta · 1555–1630

Antonio Tempesta (1555–1630), known as 'Il Tempestino,' was a Florentine painter and printmaker whose extraordinary output of approximately 1,700 etchings made him one of the most influential printmakers of the early Baroque period. Born in Florence and trained under Santi di Tito and the Flemish master Joannes Stradanus, he enrolled in the Accademia del Disegno in 1576 before relocating to Rome i...