Rinaldo Leaving the Garden of Armida

The scene showing Rinaldo leaving the garden of Armida, taken from Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso, was originally on the ground floor of the Zianigo villa. Inspired by a similar painting by his father, it is marked by an almost caricature style, already emptied of the heroic-mythical allure of Giovanni Battista's work. The theme is thus heroic and sentimental, exactly like Tasso's poem and many of Giovanni Battista's figures. But the impassioned and melancholy atmosphere of the episode is already breaking up, revealing that Giandomenico is doffing his hat as illustrator of poems to replace it with that of the comedian.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 8 minutes): George Frideric Handel: Two arias, Rinaldo, Acts II and III