Torquato Tasso
Gerusalemme Liberata — the Counter-Reformation epic
Where Ariosto was ironic, Tasso was earnest — and tormented. Gerusalemme Liberata, the epic of the First Crusade, is the great poem of Counter-Reformation Italy: heroic, sensuous, guilt-ridden, and magnificent. His madness and imprisonment became a Romantic legend. Goethe wrote a play about him.
Key works
- Gerusalemme Liberata1581— The First Crusade as Christian epic
- Aminta1573— Pastoral drama of perfect grace