Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2018 The hidden language of art: symbol and allusion

Nicolas Poussin: Peintre-philosophe

Dr Christopher Allen

16 and 17 May 2018

Lecture summary:

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was born in Normandy and did not arrive in Rome, the centre of contemporary art, until 1624 and at the comparatively late age of 30. After a couple of difficult years, however, Poussin began to be recognised as an artist of exceptional depth and originality. By the 1630s his work was in increasing demand; having caught the attention of the formidable Cardinal Richelieu, he was forced to return to France in 1640 to take up the position of First Painter of King Louis XIII. With the death of the king in 1642, he was able to escape back to Rome, where his prestige was greater than ever. He was now not only one of the three leading painters of his time – with Pietro da Cortona and Claude Lorrain – but respected as a kind of sage, a peintre- philosophe as well as peintre-poète.

Poussin was undoubtedly the most original painter of mythological subjects in the history of art, for he used the stories of classical myth as a vehicle for philosophical meditation on the order of nature. His underlying inspiration was the tradition of Stoicism, the ancient philosophy of inner steadfastness and calm, which appealed to other artists and thinkers of his time as well, including Salvator Rosa and Peter Paul Rubens. But whereas Rubens’ Stoicism was ethical, and coexisted with his Catholic faith, Poussin was also interested in the cosmological theories which the Stoics had largely borrowed from the earlier Presocratic philosopher Heraclitus. Poussin’s meditations on ethics, nature and the human mind led him to philosophical and spiritual speculations that, unlike Rubens, go well past the bounds of conventional religious belief. But his paintings are never simply illustrations of intellectual doctrine; rather, he uses an eclectic combination of biblical and mythological subjects as the means to articulate a concrete, imaginative reflection on the nature of reality.

Slide list: all works by Nicolas Poussin unless otherwise indicated * 1. (The Arcadian Shepherds), 1637-39; oil on canvas, 87 x 120 cm; , 2. Portrait busts of Zeno of Kition and Heraclitus of Ephesus * 3. Self-portrait, 1650; oil on canvas, 78 x 94 cm; Paris, Louvre 4. Peter Paul Rubens, The Four Philosophers, 1611-12; oil on canvas, 164 x 139 cm; Florence, Palazzo Pitti 5. The Death of Germanicus, 1627; oil on canvas, 148 x 198 cm; Minneapolis, Institute of Art 6. The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus, 1628; oil on canvas, 320 x 186 cm; Vatican, Pinacoteca 7. Valentin de Boulogne, Martyrdom of Sts Processus and Martinian, 1629; oil on canvas, 302 x 192; Vatican 8. Echo and Narcissus, 1628-30; oil on canvas, 74 x 100 cm; Paris, Louvre * 9. The Empire of Flora, 1631; oil on canvas, 131 x 181 cm; Dresden, Gemäldegalerie 10. The Plague at Ashdod, 1630; oil on canvas, 148 x 198 cm; Paris, Louvre 11. Venus lamenting the dead Adonis, 1628; oil on canvas, Caen, Musée des Beaux-Arts

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12. The Lamentation over the dead Christ, c. 1628-29; oil on canvas, 101 x 145 cm; Munich, Alte Pinakothek 13. The Massacre of the Innocents, 1628-29; oil on canvas, 147 x 171 cm; Chantilly, Musée Condé 14. The Nurture of , 1626-27; oil on canvas, 97 x 136 cm; Paris, Louvre 15. The Nurture of Bacchus, 1626-27; oil on canvas, 75 x 97 cm; London, National Gallery 16. The Infancy of Zeus, 1635-37, oil on canvas, 96.2 x 119.6 cm; London, Dulwich Picture Gallery 17. The Infant Zeus nursed by the goat Amalthea, 1639; oil on canvas, 97 x 13 cm; Berlin, Gemäldegalerie 18. The Holy Family on the steps, 1648; oil on canvas, 69 x 98 cm; Washington, National Gallery 19. Rebecca at the well (Rebecca and Eleazar), c. 1648; oil on canvas, 118 x 199 cm; Paris, Louvre 20. The Judgement of Solomon, 1649; oil on canvas, 101 x 150 cm; Paris, Louvre 21. The Finding of Moses, 1638; oil on canvas, 93 x 120 cm; Paris, Louvre 22. The Finding of Moses, 1651, oil on canvas, 116 x 178 cm; London, National Gallery * 23. The Finding of Moses, 1647; oil on canvas, 120 x 195 cm; Paris, Louvre

* 24. The Exposition of Moses, 1654; oil on canvas, 105 x 204 cm; Oxford, Ashmolean Museum 25. Landscape with Diogenes, c. 1647; oil on canvas, 160 x 221 cm; Paris, Louvre 26. The Funeral of Phocion, 1648; oil on canvas, 114 x 175 cm; Cardiff, National Gallery of Wales 27. Landscape with the ashes of Phocion, 1648; oil on canvas, 116.8 x 178 cm; Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery 28. Landscape with Pyramus and Thisbe, 1651; oil on canvas, 192.5 x 273.5 cm; Frankfurt, Staedel Museum * 29. Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice, c. 1650; oil on canvas, 124 x 200 cm; Paris, Louvre 30. The Death of Sapphira, 1652; oil on canvas, 122 x 199 cm; Paris, Louvre * 31. The Woman taken in Adultery, 1653; oil on canvas, 122 x 195 cm; Paris, Louvre * 32. The Birth of Bacchus, 1657; oil on canvas, 122 x 179 cm; Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum * 33. Landscape with Diana and Orion, 1660-64; oil on canvas, 119 x 183 cm; New York, Metropolitan Museum * 34. Apollo and Daphne, 1664; oil on canvas, 155 x 200 cm; Paris, Louvre 35. Landscape with a calm, 1650-51; oil on canvas, 97 x 131 cm; Malibu, Getty

Reference: Christopher Allen. French Painting in the Golden Age. London: Thames and Hudson, 2003. Christopher Allen, “Enfants et serpents: la religion de Poussin”, Dix-Septième Siècle, 1996. G. P. Bellori. The Lives of the Modern Painters, tr. H. and A. Wohl with an Introduction by T. Montanari. Cambridge UP, 2005. Anthony Blunt. “Poussin’s Notes on Painting”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, I, 1937-1938, 344-351. Anthony Blunt. Nicolas Poussin (The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts). London: Phaidon, 1967, 2 vols. E. Cropper and C. Dempsey. Nicolas Poussin: Friendship and the Love of Painting. Princeton, 1996. Nicolas Poussin, ed. A. Blunt. Lettres et propos sur l’art. Paris: Hermann, 1964, 1989. Jacques Thuillier. Nicolas Poussin. Paris: Flammarion, 1994. For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/hidden-language/