Editing Nicolas Poussin (section)

===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}}