Renaud and Armida
Canvas
168,2x208,6 inch
Jean-Claude Boyer, whom we thank for his help, suggests a possible attribution to Pierre Lemaire (Montdidier, 1610 or 1612-Rome, 1688). The painting could belong to the series of sixteen large canvases commissioned in 1639 from several artists established in Rome by the ambassador François-Annibal d'Estrées (study to be published) for the gallery of the Hôtel de la Ferté-Senneterre in Paris.
To this cycle belonged "Godefroy de Bouillon cured by the angel" by Pierre Mignard, "Renaud quitting Armide" by Charles Errard, the Meeting of Renaud and Armide in the enchanted forest by Giacinto Gimigniani, all three kept at the local museum from Hanau to Bouxwiller, and “Tancred and Herminie” by Errard (private collection).(1)
We know of a smaller version of this composition (81 x 99 cm, Sotheby's sale in London, April 23, 1998, n°193 as attributed to Michel Corneille II). This theme is taken from "Jerusalem Liberated" by Torquato Tasso, known as Le Tasse (20, 127), an epic poem inspired by the first Crusade. Armide, daughter of the king of Damascus and magician, bewitches the crusaders and diverts them from the fight. When Renaud comes to her, she falls in love with him and keeps him on her island until his companions come looking for him. Renaud then sets out again on the battlefield after having received the sword of Suénon, son of the king of Denmark killed by the Saracens and the shield engraved with the exploits of his ancestors summarized here by the white eagle of Ferrara. Betrayed, Armide joins the Caliph's troops determined to kill Renaud: "O monarch
Almighty, she said, I also come to fight for my faith and for my country. I am a woman, but of the blood of kings, and it is not unworthy of a queen to take part in battles; in order to govern, one must have all the talents necessary for the highest rank, and the hand that holds the scepter must also know how to use iron...”
It is in the last book of “Jerusalem Delivered” that the confrontation of the two heroes takes place: Already the arrow of Armide rests on his bow; a cruel wrath drives his hand. But Love stops him and suspends the fatal blow. Love fights against anger and detects the violence of the fires it seeks to hide... At last hatred prevails... The line escapes... It flies, and repentance flies with it. She would like him to go back, even if he had to strike his own heart... Thus, sometimes she
fears, and sometimes she burns to strike her unfaithful lover!... She has taken refuge in a dark and solitary place favorable to the sinister designs which she meditates against her own life... She descends from her courier, throws off her armor , his bow and his quiver... Ah! among so many arrows, isn't there a single one that can bathe in his blood! If the heart of the perfidious dulls your points, dare to pierce a woman's breast... She is silent; determined to die, she chooses the line
strongest and sharpest. Already she is bringing him close to her bosom... Already the pallor of death is spreading over her features... Suddenly Renaud comes running! At the sight of her despair, he rushes forward, seizes her and stops his arm ready to drive in the mortal iron. Armide sees it, utters a cry... "Who brings you, O you whose flight and return prove to me an equal barbarism!..." You cause my death, and you want to prevent me from putting an end to it. life!... You come to save me!... To what affronts, to what torments is Armide destined?... Seeing Renaud's tears, Armide's anger falls and, seeing the victory of the Christians, she entrusts her fate to him: Here is your slave... dispose of her as you please. (1) On this commission, see among others, Emmanuel Coquery, Charles Errard, la Noblesse du décor, Paris,-Arthena, 2013, pp. 50-53, and pp. 251-25
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