Fan - Erminia takes refuge (episode from Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered)

The leaf shows a riverside scene set in rolling countryside, probably an episode from Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme liberata (VII, 6—7): the fleeing Erminia asking a peasant for refuge. The charming, rosy face of the armour-clad rider arriving among the resting peasants and the rider's posture in preparing to dismount from the horse suggests a girl in man's clothing. The characteristic brownish-green coloration of the painting, executed using the sfumato technique, is brightened up by a red item of clothing on each of the figures. On the verso is a coloured bouquet of roses on an uncoloured ground. The sticks are embellished with stylised motifs in three rows the guard-sticks are embellished with similar inlaid, ornamentation. The picture on which the depiction was presumably based is as yet unknown.