Erminia and the Shepherds

Ludovico Carracci 1555 - 1619

Summary

The subject is taken from Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso (1544-1595). The Syrian maiden Erminia takes refuge in a wood and is cared for by an old shepherd who extols the virtues of a pastoral life. A pastoral landscape with figures. There is a woman standing beside a horse at the lower centre foreground. She is looking to the right towards the seated figure of an elderly man. A group of three figures can be seen on a river bank to the right edge with a flock of sheep under trees to the left. The background to the upper left is a rocky landscape with a castle on top of raised ground. Extensive Landscape with rocks filling the r.foreground, waterways to r. and l. with lighter ground rising in the centre. , from which grows a clump of trees including two palms. In the background l. are a castle and mountains. By the r. riverbank a group of three shepherds sit, one playing the lute, another the syrinx, while the third listens. Behind them browse a flock of sheep. R. of centre sits a bearded old man who talks to a youthful figure who leans against a horse. Lying on the ground between the two figures is a plumed helmet.