With ‘La Gerusalemme liberata’, Torquato Tasso revived the ancient genre of epic poetry. Already during his lifetime, his work became subject to an intensive discourse on the images used – both the military events of the crusades, and the tragic love stories moved artists and the public. At the same time, ‘Discorsi dell’arte poetica’ became the blueprint for the theory and practice of historic visual art. Around 1800, the focus finally moved to the personality of the poet as a model of the modern artist who suffers in and from the world.

In a dialog between literary science and art history, new research is presented on the subject of Tasso and the pictures. The focus is on the ekphrastic tradition and important artistic interpretations of Tasso in pictures – like that of Nicolas Poussin.