Both in its allegory and its inventio, Tasso’s choice of the First Crusade is imbued with profound ideological significance: the clash between the Christians and Pagans is part of the clash between Heaven and Hell, between the watchful gaze of God and the disturbing deeds of the devil. Defeating the infidels means not only conquering the Holy City, the places of Christ’s passion, but also faith prevailing in each of the Crusaders, a moment of redemptive purification and setting aside of misguided earthly bonds, whether unjust love affairs or an excessive desire for glory. Conquering Jerusalem is possible only by conquering salvation. The clear juxtaposition between two worlds, and the assigning of temptations, risks and dangers to the Pagan side, does not imply a Manichaean division: having determined a clear ideological difference, Tasso includes on the Pagan side a number of characters of noble humanity, capable of a whole range of genuine sentiments. Thus, beyond Clorinda’s baptism, which points to the Christian world, Erminia, who is in love with Tancredi, experiences life’s delights sheltered from troubling events, and Solimano, courageously observing the defeat and destruction from the walls of Jerusalem, denounces the horror of war, “l’aspra tragedia dello stato umano” (Liberata, XX 73: “the bitter tragedy of the human condition”).

Guercino, Erminia finding the Wounded Tancred, Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphili