Rinaldo and Armida

Rinaldo and ArmidaTorquato Tasso's epic poem ""La Gerusalemme Liberata"", completed in 1575 and published in 1581, provided the inspiration for this work. many seventeenth century painters. Poussin used many of its characters, Tancred and Erminia, Carlo and Ubaldo, and Rinaldo and Armida as sources for his work. The poem is set at the time of the First Crusade and follows the vicissitudes of fighting Christians and Saracens. This scene, taken from Canto XIV is

The subject

The second nymph behind them gathers honey from a tree trunk

In the Triumph of David

Preparatory drawings are in the Pierpont Morgan Library

which came into use in 1646

The identity of the girl has also been shrouded in uncertainty

this woman's industry might be at the expense of the child's proper education

The composition seems to be based partly on Annibale's etching of the Christ of Caprarola

Copy of a studio variant (the so-called 'Barberini type') of Titian's original in the Prado

resembles that of Saint Francesca Romana

Another half-length copy is at Versailles

There are versions in the collection of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey and sold Phillip's