Oil on canvas, 48cm by 65.5cm.
The story of Rinaldo and Armida is told in Torquato Tasso’s epic 16th Century poem of the Crusades, ‘Gerusalemme Liberata’.
Armida, a Saracen sorceress, is sent to murder Rinaldo, a brave Crusader, but falls in love with him and creates an enchanted garden to keep him captive.
The painting is after the composition in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.
Annibale Carracci was a leading member of the famous Bolognese family of artists and one of the most admired painters of his time.
With his brother Agostino (1557-1602) and cousin Ludovico (1555-1619), he transformed Italian painting, with the introduction of the Baroque style.
He travelled to Rome in 1595 to work on the great frescoes in the Farnese Palace.
Antonio Maria Panico, also from Bologna, is said to have been a disciple of Carracci, whose work he closely copied, following him to Rome as a young man.
