Editing Nicolas Poussin (section)

==Subjects==

Each of Poussin's paintings told a story. Though he had little formal education, Poussin became very knowledgeable in the nuances of religious history, mythology and classical literature, and, usually after consulting with his clients, took his subjects from these topics. Many of his paintings combined several different incidents, occurring at different times, into the same painting, in order to tell the story, and the ''affetti'', or facial expressions of the participants, showed their different reactions.<ref name="Temperini pp. 51">{{harvnb|Rosenberg|Temperini|1994|pp=51–53}}</ref> Aside from his self-portraits, Poussin never painted contemporary subjects.<ref>Carrier, David. "Poussin's Cartesian Meditations: Self and Other in the Self-Portraits of Poussin and Matisse". ''Notes in the History of Art'', vol. 15, no. 3, 1996, pp. 28–35.</ref>

===Religion===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Nicolas Poussin - Le massacre des Innocents - Google Art Project.jpg|''Massacre of the Innocents'', 1625–1629, Musée Condé, [[Château de Chantilly]]
File:Seven Sacraments - Ordination II (1647) Nicolas Poussin.jpg|''The Seven Sacraments – Ordination'', 1647, Louvre
File:Nicolas Poussin - The Judgment of Solomon - WGA18330.jpg|''The Judgement of Solomon'', 1649, Louvre
</gallery>
Religion was the most common subject of his paintings, as the church was the most important art patron in Rome and because there was a growing demand by wealthy patrons for devotional paintings at home. He took a large part of his themes from the [[Old Testament]], which offered more variety and the stories were often more vague and gave him more freedom to invent. He painted different versions of the stories of [[Eliazer]] and [[Rebecca]] from the [[Book of Genesis]] and made three versions of ''Moses saved from the waters''. The [[New Testament]] provided the subject of one of his most dramatic paintings, "The Massacre of the Innocents", where the general slaughter was reduced to a single brutal incident. In his ''Judgement of Solomon'' (1649), the story can be read in the varied facial expressions of the participants.<ref name="Temperini pp. 51" />

His religious paintings were sometimes criticized by his rivals for their variation from tradition. His painting of Christ in the sky in his painting of Saint Francis-Xavier was criticized by partisans of [[Simon Vouet]] for having "Too much pride, and resembling the god Jupiter more than a God of Mercy". Poussin responded that "he could not and should not imagine a Christ, no matter what he is doing, looking like a gentle father, considering that, when he was on earth among men, it was difficult to look him in the face".<ref>Félibien cited by {{harvnb|Rosenberg|Temperini|1994|p=32}}</ref>

The most famous of his religious works were the two series called ''[[Seven Sacraments (Poussin)|The Seven Sacraments]]'', representing the meaning of the moral laws behind each of the principal ceremonies of the church, illustrated by incidents in the life of Christ. The first series was painted in Rome by his major early patron, [[Cassiano dal Pozzo]], and was finished in 1642. It was viewed by his later patron, [[Paul Fréart de Chantelou]], who asked for a copy. Instead of making copies, Poussin painted an entirely new series of paintings, which was finished by 1647. The new series had less of the freshness and originality of the first series, but was striking for its simplicity and austerity in achieving its effects; the second series illustrated his mastery of the balance of the figures, the variety of expressions, and the juxtaposition of colors.{{sfn|Rosenberg|Temperini|1994|p=71}}

===Mythology and classical literature===
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File:Nicolas Poussin - The Empire of Flora - Google Art Project.jpg|''The Empire of Flora'', 1631, [[Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister]], Dresden
File:L'Enlèvement des Sabines – Nicolas Poussin – Musée du Louvre, INV 7290 – Q3110586.jpg|''[[The Rape of the Sabine Women (Poussin)|The Rape of the Sabine Women]]'', {{circa|1638}}, [[Louvre]]
File:Nicolas Poussin - Apollo and Daphne - WGA18345.jpg|''[[Apollo and Daphne (Poussin)|Apollo and Daphne]]'', 1664, Louvre
</gallery>
Classical Greek and Roman mythology, history and literature provided the subjects for many of his paintings, particularly during his early years in Rome. His first successful painting in Rome, ''The Death of Germanicus'', was based upon a story in the ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'' of [[Tacitus]]. In his early years he devoted a series of paintings, full of color, movement and sensuality, to the Bacchanals, colorful portrayals of ceremonies devoted to the god of wine [[Bacchus]], and celebrating the goddesses [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]] and [[Flora (deity)|Flore]]. He also created ''The Birth of Venus'' (1635), telling the story of the Roman goddess through an elaborate composition full of dynamic figures for the French patron, [[Cardinal Richelieu]], who had also commissioned the Bacchanals.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Poussin; The Early Years in Rome: The Origins of French Classicism|last=Oberhuber|first=Konrad|location=New York|publisher=Hudson Hills Press|year=1988}}</ref> Many of his mythological paintings featured gardens and floral themes; his first Roman patrons, the Barberini family, had one of largest and most famous gardens in Rome. Another of his early major themes was the [[Rape of the Sabine Women]], recounting how the King of Rome, [[Romulus]], wanting wives for his soldiers, invited the members of the neighboring Sabine tribe for a festival, and then, on his signal, kidnapped all of the women. He painted two versions, one in 1634, now in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], and the other in 1637, now in the Louvre. He also painted two versions illustrating a story of [[Ovid]] in the ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' in which Venus mourning the death of [[Adonis]] after a hunting accident, transforms his blood into the color of the [[anemone]] flower.

Throughout his career, Poussin frequently achieved what the art historian [[Willibald Sauerländer]] terms a "consonance ... between the pagan and the Christian world".<ref name="Sauerländer_2016">{{harvnb|Sauerländer|2016}}</ref> An example is ''The Four Seasons'' (1660–64), in which Christian and pagan themes are mingled: ''Spring'', traditionally personified by the Roman goddess [[Flora (deity)|Flora]], instead features Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden; ''Summer'' is symbolized not by [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]] but by the biblical [[Ruth (biblical figure)|Ruth]].<ref name="Sauerländer_2016"/>

In his later years, his mythological paintings became more somber, and often introduced the symbols of mortality and death. The last painting he was working on before his death was ''Apollo in love with Daphne'', which he presented to his patron, the future Cardinal Massimi, in 1665. The figures on the left of the canvas, around Apollo, largely represented vitality and life, while those on the right, around Daphne, were symbols of sterility and death. He was unable to complete the painting because of the trembling of his hand, and the figures on the right are unfinished.{{sfn|Rosenberg|Temperini|1994|pp=94–95}}

===Poetry and allegory===
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File:Nicolas Poussin 075.jpg|''Renaud et Armide'', 1635, [[Pushkin Museum]]
File:Nicolas Poussin - Et in Arcadia ego (deuxième version).jpg|''[[Et in Arcadia ego (Poussin)|Et in Arcadia ego]] (The Shepherds of Arcadia)'', second version, late 1630s, [[Louvre]]
File:The dance to the music of time c. 1640.jpg|''[[A Dance to the Music of Time (painting)|A Dance to the Music of Time]]'', 1640, [[Wallace Collection]], London
</gallery>
Besides classical literature and myth, he drew often from works of the romantic and heroic literature of his own time, usually subjects decided in advance with his patrons. He painted scenes from the epic poem ''[[Jerusalem Delivered]]'' by [[Torquato Tasso]] (1544–1595), published in 1581, and one of the most popular books in Poussin's lifetime. His painting ''Renaud and Armide'' illustrated the death of the Christian knight Renaud at the hands of the magician Armide; who, when she saw his face, saw her hatred turn to love. Another poem by Tasso with a similar theme inspired ''Tancred and Hermiene''; a woman finds a wounded knight on the road, breaks down in tears, then finds the strength through love to heal him.{{sfn|Rosenberg|Temperini|1994|pp=94–100}}

Allegories of death are common in Poussin's work. One of the best-known examples is ''[[Et in Arcadia ego (Poussin)|Et in Arcadia ego]]'', a subject he painted in about 1630 and again in the late 1630s. Idealized shepherds examine a tomb inscribed with the title phrase, "Even in [[Arcadia (paradise)|Arcadia]] I exist", reminding that death was ever-present.<ref name="Temperini pp. 101">{{harvnb|Rosenberg|Temperini|1994|pp=101–102}}</ref>

A fertile source for Poussin was Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, who wrote moralistic theatrical pieces which were staged at the [[Palazzo Barberini]], for his early patron. One of his most famous works, [[A Dance to the Music of Time (painting)|''A Dance to the Music of Time'']], was inspired by another Rospigliosi piece. According to his early biographers Bellori and Felibien, the four figures in the dance represent the stages of life: Poverty leads to Work, Work to Riches, and Riches to Luxury; then, following Christian doctrine, luxury leads back to poverty, and the cycle begins again. The three women and one man who dance represent the different stages and are distinguished by their different clothing and headdresses, ranging from plain to jeweled. In the sky over the dancing figures, the chariot of Apollo passes, accompanied by the Goddess Aurora and the Hours, a symbol of passing time.<ref name="Temperini pp. 101"/>

===Landscapes and townscapes===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200">
File:Poussin - Paysage avec saint Jean à Patmos - Chicago Art Institute.jpg|''[[Landscape with Saint John on Patmos]]'', late 1630s, [[Art Institute of Chicago]]
File:Nicolas Poussin - Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion]]'', 1648, [[Walker Art Gallery]]
File:Nicolas Poussin - Stormy Landscape with Pyramus and Thisbe - WGA18334.jpg|''Landscape with Pyramus and Thisbe'', 1651, [[Städel Museum]]
File:Nicolas Poussin - La Mort de Saphire.jpg|''The Death of Sapphira'', 1654, Louvre
</gallery>
Poussin is an important figure in the development of [[Landscape art|landscape]] painting. In his early paintings the landscape usually forms a graceful background for a group of figures, but later the landscape played a larger and larger role and dominated the figures, illustrating stories, usually tragic, taken from the Bible, mythology, ancient history or literature. His landscapes were very carefully composed, with the vertical trees and classical columns carefully balanced by the horizontal bodies of water and flat building stones, all organized to lead the eye to the often tiny figures. The foliage in his trees and bushes is very carefully painted, often showing every leaf. His skies played a particularly important part, from the blue skies and gray clouds with bright sunlit borders (a sight often called in France "a Poussin sky") to illustrate scenes of tranquility and the serenity of faith, such as the ''[[Landscape with Saint John on Patmos]]'', painted in the late 1630s before his departure for Paris; or extremely dark, turbulent and threatening, as a setting for tragic events, as in his ''Landscape with Pyramus and Thisbe'' (1651). Many of his landscapes have enigmatic elements noticeable only with closer inspection; for example, in the center of the landscape with Pyramus and Thisbe, despite the storm in the sky, the surface of the lake is perfectly calm, reflecting the trees.{{Sfn|Rosenberg|Temperini|1994|pages=109–127}}

Between 1650 and 1655, Poussin also painted a series of paintings now often called "townscapes", where classical architecture replaces trees and mountains in the background. The painting ''The Death of Saphire'' uses this setting to illustrate two stories simultaneously; in the foreground, the wife of a wealthy merchant dies after being chastised by St. Peter for not giving more money to the poor; while in the background another man, more generous, gives alms to a beggar.{{Sfn|Rosenberg|Temperini|1994|pages=109–127}}