Anonymous British Needleworker Erminia carving the name of Tancred into a Tree Trunk ca. 1790 embroidery (silk thread) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Tommaso Minardi Erminia carving Tancred's name on a Tree ca. 1820 drawing Philadelphia Museum of Art |
from Gerusalemme Liberata
Oftentimes, when under the summer heat the sheep were lying stretch out in the shade, on the bark of a beech or laurel she inscribed the beloved name in a thousand ways, and carved on a thousand trees the bitter issue of her strange and hapless love; and then in reading over her own words she bathed her cheeks with lovely tears.
– Torquato Tasso (1581), translated from Italian verse to English prose by Ralph Nash (1987)
Agostino Carracci after Bernardo Castello Erminia tending Tancred's wounds 1589-90 engraving Philadelphia Museum of Art |
attributed to Paulus Willemsz van Vianen Erminia succouring the wounded Tancred before 1613 stipple-engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Alessandro Turchi Erminia discovers the wounded Tancred ca. 1630 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Nicolas Poussin Tancred and Erminia ca. 1630 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Nicolas Poussin Tancred and Erminia ca. 1634 oil on canvas Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham |
Gerard van der Gucht after Nicolas Poussin Tancred and Erminia before 1776 engraving Harvard Art Museums |
Bernardo Cavallino Erminia tending the wounded Tancred ca. 1650 oil on canvas Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
Pier Francesco Mola Erminia tending the wounded Tancred ca. 1650-60 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
from Gerusalemme Liberata
The unfortunate maiden had stopped to gaze upon the fierce warrior when by the sound of the grieving voice she took an arrow through the center of her heart. At the name of Tancred she quickly ran up like one drunken and out of her mind. When she saw the pale and handsome face, she did not descend, she hurled herself from the saddle
and poured out over him tears from an inexhaustible spring, and speech mingled with sobbing: 'Now in what wretched hour does Fortune bring me here? to what sad and bitter spectacle? After so long a time, with much ado, I find you, Tancred, and I see you again, and am not seen. I am not seen by you though I am with you; and finding you I am losing you forever.'
– Torquato Tasso (1581), translated from Italian verse to English prose by Ralph Nash (1987)
Giovanni Antonio Guardi Erminia finding the wounded Tancred ca. 1750-55 oil on canvas Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice |
Anonymous Fan-Painter after Giovanni Antonio Guardi Erminia finding the wounded Tancred 1767 gouache on vellum, with ivory sticks Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Jacques Firmin Beauvarlet after Louis Lagrenée the Elder Tancred tended by Erminia 1761 etching and engraving Philadelphia Museum of Art |
Francesco Bartolozzi after Giovanni Battista Cipriani Tancred and Erminia 1784 etching and engraving Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
John Thompson Erminia cutting off her hair to bind the wounds of Tancred 1817 wood-engraving (book illustration) British Museum |
from Gerusalemme Liberata
She sees that his trouble stems from exhaustion and from too great a loss of blood. But in such a solitary region she has nothing with which to bind his wounds, except a veil. Love invents for her the novel bandages and teaches her unaccustomed arts of mercy. She dried them with her hair and bound them again with the very hair that she had been wishing to cut;
inasmuch as her veil, scanty and thin, could not suffice for so many wounds. Dittany and crocus she had none, but charms she knew for such purposes powerful and magical. Already he shakes off the deadly stupor, already he is able to raises his eyes, luminous and expressive . . .
– Torquato Tasso (1581), translated from Italian verse to English prose by Ralph Nash (1987)