Artist Ubaldo Gandolfi (Italian, April 28, 1728–July 27, 1781)
Title Armida Discovers Rinaldo
Date Ca. 1750--1780
Medium Brown ink and gray wash on paper
Dimensions Image: 9 5/8 x 7 11/16 in. (24.4 x 19.5 cm)
Framed: 17 1/4 × 15 1/8 × 3/4 in. (43.8 × 38.4 × 1.9 cm)
Credit Line The Anthony Moravec Collection of Old Master Drawings, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 2010.130
About this Work
A prolific and skilled draftsman, Ubaldo Gandolfi was part of the famous Gandolfi family of artists from Bologna. With his brother Gaetano, Ubaldo contributed greatly to the tradition of Bolognese draftsmanship. The two brothers witnessed the transition from late Bolognese Baroque into Neoclassicism. Ubaldo trained in the Academia Clementina in Bologna, where he acquired a precise knowledge of human anatomy; he also practiced drawing from a live model throughout his career. He was best known as a painter of religious subjects and portraits.
Gandolfi's classical scene probably illustrates an episode from the Iliad. This scene could represent Diomedes being rescued by the goddess Athena, a popular theme at the end of the eighteenth century in Italy.An admirer of Giambattista Tiepolo, Ubaldo developed his own sprightly pen and ink style. Here he portrays an encounter between Rinaldo and Armida, from Torquato Tasso’s famous poem of 1582 in which Armida discovers the crusader Rinaldo and, having fallen in love, decides to rescue him. Rinaldo, holding a shield, has awakened and is rising to accompany the desperate Armida to the safety of her garden.
