Poussin, Ballet, and the Birth of French Classicism Emily A. Beeny Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 © 2016 Emily A. Beeny All rights reserved Abstract Poussin, Ballet, and the Birth of French Classicism Emily A. Beeny Examining a group of pictures painted in the early-to-mid 1630s, this dissertation sets out to demonstrate that Nicolas Poussin’s turn to the subject of dance helped him transform his style from the sensuous Venetian manner of his early years to the cool, crisp, relief-like approach that would characterize his mature work and form the basis for French Classicism in subsequent decades. Painting dancers allowed Poussin to work through the problem of arresting motion, to explore the affective potential of the body represented, and to discover a measured, geometric compositional method capable of containing and harnessing that potential. The resulting pictures, painted in Rome, were warmly received in Paris by a group of early collectors that included dancers, patrons, amateurs, and theorists of another modern French art: the ballet de cour. Ballet’s cultivation of a fiercely controlled physicality, its wild Dionysian characters and learned Apollonian conceits, above all, its insistence on a hidden geometric order underlying the chaos of embodied experience primed early French observers of Poussin’s dancing pictures to recognize something of themselves in his new approach. Though Poussin did not set out to define French Classicism, and though his brief service as premier peintre to Louis XIII demonstrates how ill-suited he was to the role of official artist, the fact that his dancing pictures shared so much—on the level of patronage, iconography, even, perhaps, theoretical underpinnings— with the ballet de cour may help explain why these works (and, indeed, Poussin himself) were so eagerly appropriated by France in the Classical Age. Contents List of Illustrations ii Acknowledgments xv Dedication xvii Introduction 1 Chapter 1. Poussin, Ballet, Poussin and Ballet 9 Chapter 2. The Dance of Flora 72 Addendum: Herms, Vaux, and the Sites of Dance 99 Chapter 3. Bacchus, Apis, and the Origins of Dance 115 Chapter 4. Dancing Soldiers, Dancing Sabines 155 Chapter 5. Dances for Richelieu and Olivares 190 Conclusion: A Dance to the Music of Time 226 Bibliography 232 Illustrations Appendix (supplementary document) i Illustrations N.B. All figure illustrations appear in the Appendix, a separate, supplementary document. Introduction 0.1 Nicolas Poussin, Bacchanal before a Herm. Oil on canvas. London, National Gallery, inv. NG62. 0.2 Nicolas Poussin, Empire of Flora. Oil on canvas. Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. Gal.-Nr. 719. 0.3 Nicolas Poussin, Hymenaeus Disguised as a Woman during an Offering to Priapus. Oil on canvas. São Paulo, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, inv. 46 P. 0.4 Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Pan. Oil on canvas. London, National Gallery, inv. NG6477. 0.5 Nicolas Poussin, Adoration of the Golden Calf. Oil on canvas. London, National Gallery, inv. NG5597. 0.6 Nicolas Poussin, A Dance to the Music of Time. Oil on canvas. London, Wallace Collection, inv. P108. 0.7 Nicolas Poussin, Death of Sapphira. Oil on canvas. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 7286. 0.8 Juste d‘Egmont, Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu at the Ballet de la Prospérité des Armes de France, 1641. Oil on panel. Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, inv. 06-507906. 0.9 Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Venus (known as the Triumph of Flora). Oil on canvas. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 7298. 0.10 Nicolas Poussin, Bacchanal before a Herm. Pen, ink, and wash on paper. Windsor, Royal Collection, inv. RL 11979. 0.11 Nicolas Poussin, Rape of the Sabines. Oil on canvas. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 7290. 0.12 Nicolas Poussin, Rape of the Sabines. Oil on canvas. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 46.160. Chapter 1. Poussin, Ballet, Poussin and Ballet 1.1 Nicolas Poussin, A Dance to the Music of Time. Oil on canvas. London, Wallace Collection, inv. P108. 1.2 Nicolas Poussin, Bacchanal with a Guitar Player. Oil on canvas. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 7296. 1.3 Nicolas Poussin, Bacchanal before a Herm. Oil on canvas. London, National Gallery, inv. NG62. 1.4 Gaeta Vase, first century, CE. Marble. Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, inv. 6673. 1.5 Nicolas Poussin, Votary of Bacchus. Pen, ink, and wash on paper. Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. 86.GG.469. 1.6 Simon Vouet, Toilette of Venus. Oil on canvas. Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, inv. 52.7. 1.7 Andrea Sacchi, Allegory of Divine Wisdom, ca. 1629-1631. Fresco. Rome, Palazzo Barberini. 1.8 Pietro da Cortona, Allegory of Divine Providence, 1633-1639. Fresco. Rome, Palazzo Barberini. 1.9 Andrea Sacchi, Portrait of Marcantonio Pasqualini Crowned by Apollo, 1641. Oil on canvas. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 1981.317. 1.10 Nicolas Poussin, Inspiration of the Poet. Oil on canvas. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 1774. 1.11 François Duquesnoy, Saint Susanna, 1629. Rome, Santa Maria di Loreto. 1.12 Nicolas Poussin, Inspiration of the Poet—detail of muse. ii 1.13 Jacques Patin, engraved illustration from Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx, Ballet Comique de la Royne (Paris: Ballard, 1582). 1.14 Armida and Her Captives, engraved illustration from Discours au vray du ballet dansé par le Roy le dimanche XXIX iour de iavier, MVI XVII (Paris: Pierre Ballard, 1617). 1.15 Daniel Rabel, Music, costume design for the Ballet des Fees de la Forest de Saint Germain, 1625. Watercolor, ink, pencil, and gold paint on paper. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. S.1163-1986. 1.16 Daniel Rabel, Astronomer, costume design for the Ballet du Sérieux et du Grotesque, 1627. Watercolor, ink, pencil, and gold paint on paper. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. S.1167-1986. 1.17 Daniel Rabel, Entrée des Esperlucattes, from the Ballet de la Douairière de Billebahaut et Ballet des fees des forêts de Saint Germain, 1626. Watercolor, ink, pencil, and gold paint on paper. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 32616. 1.18 Daniel Rabel, Entrée des Sorcières et des monstres, from the Ballet du Chasteau de Bicêtre, 1632. Watercolor, ink, pencil, and gold paint on paper. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 32673. 1.19 Daniel Rabel, Grand Ballet from the Ballet des Fées de la forêt de Saint Germain, 1625. Watercolor, ink, pencil, and gold paint on paper. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 32649. 1.12 Daniel Rabel, Grand Ballet from the Ballet du chasteau de Bicêtre, 1632. Watercolor, ink, pencil, and gold paint on paper. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 32602-recto-folio1. 1.21 Jean Boisseau, Le Palais Cardinal, ca. 1641 (the new theater appears in the lower right-hand corner). Engraving. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, inv. VA-217 (E)-FOL A -15660. 1.22 After Stefano della Bella, Act 5 of „Mirame,‟ Theatre du Palais Cardinal, 1641. Etching. Paris, Musée du Louvre, collection Rothschild, inv. 25056LR. 1.23 Attributed to Juste d‘Egmont, Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu at the Ballet de la Prospérité des Armes de France, 1641. Oil on panel. Paris, Musée des Arts Decoratifs, inv. 06-507906. 1.24 Attributed to Henry de Gissey, Louis XIV as the Sun from the Ballet de la Nuict, 1653. Watercolor, ink and pencil on paper. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, inv. 00-020079. 1.25 Engraved by Nicolas Cochin after Giacomo Torelli, Entrée of Aurora from the Ballet de la Nuict, 1653. Engraved illustration. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, departement Litterature et art, inv. Yf-1212. 1.26a-b Illustrations by Raoul Auger Feuillet, from Choregraphie ou l‟art de decrire la danse par caracteres, figures, et signes demonstratifs (Paris: chez l‘auteur, 1701). 1.27 Nicolas Poussin, The Blind Orion Searching for the Sun. Oil on canvas. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 24.45.1. 1.28 Engraved frontispiece to Guillaume de Lauze, Apologie de la danse et la parfaicte méthode de l‟enseigner tant aux cavaliers qu‟aux dames (Paris: n.p., 1623). 1.29 Model reconstruction of Poussin‘s ‗toy theater.‘ Photograph from Blunt, Nicolas Poussin: The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. 1.30 Francesco Valesio after Simon Vouet, Portrait of Giambattista Marino, 1649. Engraving. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, département de Musique, inv. Est.MarinoG.001. 1.31 Daniel Rabel and studio, Athletes, costume design for the Ballet d‟Apollon, 1627. Watercolor, ink, pencil and gold paint on paper. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. S.1145-1986. 1.32 Nicolas Poussin, Flora and Zephyr. Pen on paper. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 32503-recto. 12. 1.33 Nicolas Poussin, Empire of Flora. Pen, ink, and wash over red chalk on paper. Windsor, Royal Collection, inv. 911983. iii 1.34 Nicolas Poussin, Time Saving Truth from Envy and Discord. Oil on canvas. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 7301. 1.35 Nicolas Poussin, The Burning Bush. Oil on canvas. Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. KMSsp688. 1.36 Nicolas Poussin, Marine Triumph. Oil on canvas. Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, inv. E1932-1- 1. 1.37 Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Bacchus. Oil on canvas. Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, inv. 31- 94. 1.38 Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Pan. Oil on canvas. London, National Gallery, inv. NG6477. 1.39 Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Silenus. Oil on canvas. London, National Gallery, inv. NG42. 1.40 Nicolas Poussin, The Saving of Pyrrhus. Oil on canvas. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 7292. 1.41 Nicolas Poussin, Rebecca and Eliezar at the Well. Oil on canvas. Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv.