“In the tenth canto, Armida’s arts and Rinaldo’s acts of fighting are not fully known, but merely hinted at. Leaving the reader in suspense by moving from confusion to distinction, from the universal to the detail, is Virgil’s perpetual art” (translated from T. Tasso, Lettere poetiche, edited by C. Molinari, Parma, Guanda, Fondazione Pietro Bembo, 1995, 79-80). While Homer was used as a model for the Liberata, insofar as the original paradigm of the epic, Virgil’s Aeneid contributed to Tasso’s choices by providing a number of starting-points for possible innovations. Besides leaving the reader in suspense (l’auditor sospetto) by using the technique of gradual clarification of the plot, Tasso followed Virgil’s greater decorum, as opposed to Homer’s insistence on details, which risked creating too base a register. In Tasso’s view, “Homer’s virtue is the proper virtue of each and every poet, while Virgil’s virtue is that of the poet of heroic poetry, who should maintain decorum and sustain greatness before all else” (translated from T. Tasso, Discorsi dell’arte poetica e del poema eroico, edited by L. Poma, Bari, Laterza, 1964, 248). He also borrowed Virgil’s virtuous blend of love and war, on the narrative level by using the tragic love story between Aeneas and Dido as a model and by taking on board the contemporary emphasis on enriching the epic with episodes to delight readers, and on the level of style by using Virgil’s hexameters, along with Petrarch, to guide his composition of the love sections of the Liberata.

Federico Barocci, Aeneas flees burning Troy, Rome, Galleria Borghese