Jerusalem Liberated (Epic)

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Giovanni Battista Tiepolo : Armida finds Rinaldo asleep , 1742–45, Art Institute , Chicago
Tancred and Erminia , by Nicolas Poussin ( Hermitage ), 1630s

The liberated Jerusalem ( Italian : La Gerusalemme liberata ) is an epic by Torquato Tasso .

Origin of the work

Tasso worked on his main work for over 15 years, which he completed in April 1574 . The following summer he read it to Duke Alfonso II d'Este and the princesses. The most pleasant time of his life was over, his best works were already written; suddenly he was faced with unexpected problems. Instead of trusting his instincts and releasing the work, he felt insecure.

He sent manuscripts of the Gerusalemme to various sizes of his time - writers, theologians, philosophers - to obtain their opinions. He asked them to express their criticism and wanted to include their suggestions in his work, insofar as they coincided with his ideas. In May Tasso went to Padua and Vicenza and asked the great scholar Gian Vincenzo Pinelli to examine the work. In September 1575 he went to Rome , where he presented his work to Scipio Gonzago , Flaminio de 'Nobili , Silvio Antoniano , Pier Angelis Bargeo , Sperone Speroni , and in Florence to the famous writer Vincenzo Borghini .

Erminia and the Shepherds (detail) by Joseph-Benoît Suvée , 1776, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Ghent

The result: each of these sincere friends praised the work in general, but wanted to work on details: the plot, the title, individual episodes, the choice of words or the basic moral tone. One wanted it to be more regular, more classic, another wanted a more romantic tone; a friend remarked that the Inquisition would not tolerate the supernatural parts of the work, another wanted the most enchanted passages, the love stories of Armida, Clorinda and Erminia, to be expanded. So Tasso had to defend himself against all these objections. Time has shown that Tasso's self-chosen critics were not suited to properly assess the work. They felt that the epic form chosen by Tasso did not fit the romantic content of the poem. So they advised Tasso not to do the right thing, to publish the work, but to revise it.

Tasso, already overly challenged by his studies, the strenuous life at court and his work as a man of letters, could no longer cope with this additional effort. His health began to suffer: he complained of headaches, suffered from malaria-like chills and wished to leave Ferrara . So he began negotiating with the court of Florence, which angered the Duke of Ferrara, who hated nothing so much as when a courtier abandoned him for a rival duke. He suspected that if he let Tasso go the Gerusalemme would be dedicated to Tasso's new masters, the Medici , and consequently refused Tasso permission to leave the court.

Content of the work

Tankred baptizes the dying Clorinda by Domenico Tintoretto , end of the 16th century.

The work describes the initial disagreement and setbacks of Christians in the conquest of Jerusalem and their eventual success.

At the beginning of the work Sofronia , a Christian virgin from Jerusalem, accuses herself of a crime before the Muslim ruler of Jerusalem in order to prevent a general massacre of the Christian minority in Jerusalem. Her lover Olindo tries to save her and therefore also accuses herself of a crime before the Islamic ruler.

Clorinda , a virgin warrior, joins the Muslims in Jerusalem. The Christian King Tankred falls in love with her. During a nighttime battle in which Clorinda sets a Christian siege tower on fire, she is accidentally killed by Tankred. Before she dies, she converts to Christianity and is baptized by Tankred. (The character of Clorinda is inspired by Virgil's character Camilla and by Ariost's Bradamante from Orlando furioso .) The circumstances of Clorinda's birth, who was born as Albina to Ethiopian parents, are modeled on motifs from the novel Aithiopika by Heliodorus of Emesa .

Pier Francesco Mola : Tancred is revived by Erminia and Vafrino , around 1650, Louvre, Paris

Erminia (in German translations often "Hermine"), a virgin from Antioch , falls in love with Tankred and begs the people of Jerusalem to help him. But when she discovers that Tankred loves Clorinda, she becomes jealous. One night she steals Clorinda's armor and leaves Jerusalem to look for Tankred. But she is attacked by Christian soldiers, who mistake her for Clorinda, and so she flees to a nearby forest. There she is looked after by a shepherd family. In the further course of the work she appears accompanied by followers of the sorceress Armida , but eventually she leaves the Muslim population and changes to the Christian side. When Tankred is badly wounded in battle, she heals him.

Luca Giordano : Rinaldo and Armida , around 1672–74, Musée des Beaux-Arts , Lyon

The Saracen sorceress Armida ( modeled after Homer's sorceress Circe and the sorceress Alcina in Ariost's Orlando furioso ) appears in the Christian camp and asks about their destination; their speeches lead to a dispute among the Christian knights. Some of the knights leave the camp with her and are shortly thereafter transformed into animals by the sorceress. Armida then tries to kill the famous Christian crusader Rinaldo (his name also appears in Ariostos Orlando furioso ); but she falls in love with him and takes him to a magical island. Two Christian knights search for Rinaldo and discover the magical fortress of the sorceress. They manage to get to Rinaldo and they give him a mirror made of diamonds. When Rinaldo looks in the mirror, he recognizes the enchanted world around him and leaves the magic island to continue fighting in front of Jerusalem. Armida is left heartbroken. She tries to commit suicide, but Rinaldo finds her in time and prevents this. He persuades them to convert to Christianity.

Reception of the work

The work was very successful in Europe over the next two centuries. Various critics, however, condemned the work because of its magical extravagances and the confused narrative content of the work.

Works based on the epic

Paolo Finoglia : Tancredi and Clorinda , from the 10-part cycle on Gerusalemme Liberata , approx. 1634–43, Castello di Conversano

Music (selection)

Scene from Lully's Armide (Act 3)
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo : Rinaldo Leaving Armida , 1757, Villa Valmarana , Vicenza
Costume design for Lorenza Correa as Armida, Turin 1804

Plays

  • Max Turiel, Clorinda Deleste, El Camino del Sol . Partly adapted from Gerusalemme Liberata , ISBN 84-934710-8-9 , Ediciones La Sirena 2006.
Francesco Maffei : Rinaldo with the mirror shield , around 1650–55, Getty Center , Los Angeles

painting

Erminia saves Tancred , by Guercino , around 1618–19, Galleria Doria Pamphilj , Rome
Giovanni Antonio and Francesco Guardi : Erminia with the Shepherds , around 1750–55, National Gallery of Art , Washington
Rinaldo and Armida , by Francesco Hayez , 1812–13, Accademia , Venice

More detailed information can be found as an appendix in: Max Wickert , The Liberation of Jerusalem (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Engravings, drawings, illustrations

Antonio Tempesta : Rinaldo's Disenchantment of the Magical Forest (Canto XVIII), copperplate, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

literature

  • Gerusalemme liberata ed.Lanfranco Caretti (Einaudi, 1971) ISBN 978-88-06-17569-6
  • Eckhard Leuschner: Antonio Tempesta's Drawings for a “Gerusalemme liberata” , in: Master Drawings , Vol. 37, No. 2, summer 1999, pp. 138-155

Web links

Commons : Gerusalemme liberata  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Gerusalemme liberata  - Sources and full texts (Italian)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Teniers' cycle of pictures about Rinaldo and Armida on the Prado website (accessed May 11, 2020)
  2. ↑ Eckhard Leuschner: Antonio Tempesta's Drawings for a "Gerusalemme liberata" , in: Master Drawings , Vol. 37, No. 2, Sommer 1999, pp. 138–155, here: pp. 139 f
  3. ↑ Eckhard Leuschner: Antonio Tempesta's Drawings for a "Gerusalemme liberata" , in: Master Drawings , Vol. 37, No. 2, summer 1999, pp. 138-155