Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), Italian poet. Tasso was the most influential poet of the Italian Renaissance. His most important work was 'Gerusalemme liberata' (1581, 'Jerusalem Liberated'), an epic poem about the First Crusade in the 11th century. Tasso's achievement was to reconcile the classical heroic verse form with the stringent requirements laid down by the Catholic Counter Reformation. Criticism of his work led to outbursts of violent behaviour and he was confined to a hospital. After he was released he worked to revise the poem to please his critics, but 'Gerusalemme Conquistata' (1593, 'Jerusalem Conquered') was inferior to the original. Artwork published in Paris in 1810.