Tancred and Erminia

Poussin painted this in Rome around 1631, when the story it tells was still fresh reading for educated Europeans. The scene comes from Torquato Tasso's poem about the First Crusade, printed in 1581 and hugely popular. Tancred, a Christian knight, lies wounded after a duel. The woman leaning over him is Erminia, a Saracen princess who loves him, and she has drawn her sword to cut off her own long hair and bind his wounds with it. Poussin dresses everyone in the calm draperies of ancient Rome rather than medieval armour, the way he thought serious painting should look. He was so taken with this moment, a warrior princess turning her blade on her own hair, that he painted the subject more than once.