Erminie chez les bergers

This painting by Eugène Delacroix is inspired by Jerusalem Delivered, the epic poem published in 1581 by Torquato Tasso about the medieval Crusades and the struggle between Christian crusaders and Muslim Saracens. In Tasso’s story, Erminia is a Syrian princess who falls in love with the Christian knight Tancred. In this scene, she is disguised as a knight and sets out to search for her lover, who has been wounded in battle. She encounters shepherds who are frightened by her warlike appearance. The work reflects Delacroix’s Romantic taste for literary subjects, the Orient, and the Crusades, while bringing together chivalric violence, love, and pastoral landscape.