Rinaldo and Armida in Her Garden
1742/45
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
186.7 × 259.4 cm (73 1/2 × 102 1/8 in.); Framed: 194.3 × 270.5 × 7.9 cm (76 1/2 × 106 1/2 × 3 1/8 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
16485
Art Historical Context
Step into the enchanting world of Giovanni Battista Tolo's *Rinaldo and Armida Her Garden* (1742/45), a masterful oil on canvas measuring nearly 7 by 8 ½ feet, now housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Department of Painting and Sculpture of Europe. This grand narrative draws from Torquato T's 16th-century epic *Germe Liberata*, depicting the Christian knight Rinaldo ensnared by the seductive sorceress Armida amid her lush, magical garden. Tiepolo captures the moment of tender enchantment, where love battles duty, blending myth with human emotion. A pinnacle of Venetian Rococo, Tiepolo's s...
About the Artist
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · 1696–1770
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) stands as the greatest decorative painter of eighteenth-century Europe, a Venetian master whose luminous frescoes and dynamic compositions defined the Rococo era's aesthetic zenith. Born in Venice on March 5, 1696, to a modest shipping merchant family, Tiepolo's extraordinary talent transcended his humble origins to establish him as the most sought-after artis...