This hand-painted poster by Carmelo Chines, originally overpasted with the 'ricordino' giving handwritten details of the performance, advertised a puppet show in Taormina, Sicily, in about 1920. It is illustrated with a scene from the last part of the Story of Paladins of France, immediately before the struggle of Roncisvalle, showing King Balano rescuing Rinaldo from the flaming castle.

This part of the story takes origins from the 15th century poem The Trabisonda in which Rinaldo of Montalbano, the second Paladin of Charlemagne, is exiled by the Emperor because of the traitor Gano di Magonza’s evil sorcery. Montalbano is destroyed and Rinaldo’s wife and sons are imprisoned, but Rinaldo becomes an Emperor in Asia, more powerful than Charlemagne, defeats many Saracen kings and convertshis people to Christianity. Realising this, Gano again uses sorcery against Rinaldo causing King Tremedosso of Arabia to imprison him in the Castle of the Death. King Balano goes to war to free Rinaldo, but Tremedosso sets the castle alight with Rinaldo inside. Heroically the King enters the castle, puts Rinaldo on his shoulder and saves him.

This traditional type of Sicilian puppetry known as Opera dei Pupi developed in Italy during the 19th century and was typically full of exciting action, recreating battles between Christians and Saracens, or telling the stories of Italian poems or the lives of saints. It was played by wooden marionettes of two types, from Palermo and Catania, suspended on iron rods. Palermo puppets were about 90cms tall, weighed less than 15 kilos and had bendable knee joints, while Catanian puppets could be as tall as 140cms, weigh 35 kilos, had stiff knees and fixed swords, and were operated by perfomers stading above the stage on a bridge concealed by he proscenium arch.