Angelica Kauffmann, 1741–1807, Swiss, active in Britain (1766–81)
Title:
Rinaldo and Armida
Date:
1771
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
51 1/2 × 60 1/4 inches (130.8 × 153 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.383
Gallery Label:
At a time when few women in England were professional artists, the Swiss-born Kauffmann forged a successful career by producing ambitious allegorical paintings. Her command of the genre gained her admission to the Royal Academy of Arts, London, as one of its founding members. For this work, Kauffman drew her subject from the Italian Renaissance poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) by Torquato Tasso, which inspired many other eighteenth-century European artists. She depicts Rinaldo, a Crusader, falling under the spell of Armida, a sorceress. The painter places a mirror at Armida’s feet to reflect how the lovers have eyes only for each other and thus fail to notice Rinaldo’s compatriots arriving to rescue him. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025
