Mattia Preti (163-1699), Clorinda frees Olindo and Sofronia from the stake, c.1646, Oil on canvas, 248 x 245 cm, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa
Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered (1581) became one of the most celebrated literary works of early modern Europe, its dramatic episodes inspiring painters, and composers alike. The poem’s fusion of Christian heroism, passionate love, and supernatural intervention offered artists a rich repertoire of scenes that could be shaped into visual spectacle. Its resonance was heightened by Europe’s ongoing struggles with the Ottoman Empire, which gave new urgency to Tasso’s crusading narrative and lent contemporary meaning to its portrayals of conflict between faiths.
In this early version, Mattia Preti crafted a highly original work that synthesised three artistic legacies he admired: the dramatic tenebrism of Caravaggio, the colouristic breadth of the Venetians, and the graceful idealism of the Bolognese school. Clorinda Frees Olindo and Sofronia from the Stake takes one of Tasso’s most theatrical episodes, where Sofronia, a Christian maiden, falsely confesses to a crime to save her people, and her lover Olindo insists on sharing her fate. Both are condemned to die by fire until Clorinda, a warrior-maiden in Aladine’s service, intervenes to win their release.
Clorinda is one of Tasso’s most complex heroines: outwardly aligned with the Muslim forces yet consistently portrayed with nobility, courage, and compassion. In the poem she is described as a fearless warrior, but also as a figure of inner tension, destined for a dramatic conversion when, fatally wounded by the Christian knight Tancredi, she receives baptism at the moment of her death. This later episode charged her interventions earlier in the poem with a sense of providential foreshadowing. For Counter-Reformation audiences, Clorinda’s actions could be read as the stirrings of grace working even within a figure initially fighting for the ‘enemy’ side.
Preti makes this moral ambiguity central to his painting. He depicts Clorinda not as a caricatured adversary but as a dignified and commanding presence, halting the execution with decisive authority. Her upright bearing and controlled gesture convey authority, while her slightly illuminated figure contrasts with the shadowed forms of Aladine’s retinue. In this way she becomes the true moral axis of the scene, embodying both the poem’s theatricality and its latent theology of redemption.
Preti’s composition closely echoes the text of Jerusalem Delivered. Sofronia’s steadfast self-sacrifice recalls Tasso’s line: ‘She, steadfast, went, clothed in faith and courage, to meet the cruel death prepared for her‘ (Book II). Olindo’s attempt to take her place finds its source in ‘If guilty blood must quench the fire, then strike at me, for I share her crime and fate‘. Clorinda’s noble intervention is foreshadowed in the passage: ‘She came, strong in spirit and fair in form, and with a voice of command stayed the tyrant’s hand‘. These verses authorised and shaped Preti’s interpretation, allowing him to render Clorinda as the agent of salvation whose later destiny gave the scene heightened theological resonance.
