Rinaldo abandoning Armida
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 15 5/8 × 10 7/16 in. (39.7 × 26.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1962
Accession Number
62.602.1028
Art Historical Context
This engraving captures a dramatic moment from Torquato T’s epic poem *Jerusalem Delivered in which the Christian knight Rinaldo turns away from the enchanted sorceress Armida to rejoin his crusading companions. Created between 1720 and 1762 by Charles Antoine Coypel in collaboration with engravers François Joullain and Louis Surugue, the print translates Coypel’s painted composition into a finely detailed black-and-white image. The careful line work and tonal gradations typical of eighteenth-century French engraving allow the emotional tension of the farewell—Armida’s despair and Rinaldo’s re...