Erminia and the Shepherds (after Torquato Tasso), ca. 1776

Erminie with the Shepherds depicts a scene from the seventh song of Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, an epic poem that takes the conquest of Jerualem by the Crusaders as its subject. Tasso describes the battles between Christian and Muslim soldiers and the love perils between crusaders and exotic women. In the seventh song, Erminie, a captured Moorish princess, is released by the Christian crusader Tankredes. As a result, Erminie falls in love with him. When she learns that Tankredes has been wounded, she tries to seek him out with a ruse: she dresses up in the armour of Clorinda, a Saracen Amazon with whom Tankredes has fallen in love. When Erminie approaches the crusaders' camp, she is surprised by some sentries. She flees and hides on the banks of the Jordan, where she meets an old shepherd and his family. She marvels at the peace and happiness of this shepherd's family while a terrible war rages. The old man replies: It is not the reed, but the oak that is struck by lightning. Typical of neoclassicism is the reference to classical antiquity: Erminie is depicted in the clothes of Minerva, the Roman goddess of war.