Armida

The woman with the raised sceptre is Armida, the Muslim sorceress from Torquato Tasso's epic poem 'Jerusalem Delivered', which had been the most read book in Italy for two generations by the time this was painted around 1650. In the story she is sent to destroy the crusaders and instead falls helplessly in love with one of them, the knight Rinaldo, and spirits him away to an enchanted island. Cecco Bravo, a Florentine painter, gives her a face smooth as a carved gem, pearls and ribbons, and thin fabrics that leave little to the imagination. Around her he crowds the creatures Tasso summons from the underworld, dragons and serpents and small demons, so her beauty and her danger arrive together. The canvas was given to the Uffizi and first shown to the public in 1986.