Rinaldo and Armida

Nicolas Poussin rendered this scene from Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata around 1630. The Saracen sorceress Armida raises a dagger to kill the sleeping crusader Rinaldo, but Cupid restrains her arm. In this exact moment, her hatred transforms into love.

The painting captures the tension between violence and tenderness as Armida's expression softens. Tasso's allegory represents the struggle between Reason and Concupiscence. Poussin painted this theme multiple times, with related works at the Pushkin Museum and Berlin's Gemäldegalerie. Now at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.