Editing Nicolas Poussin (section)

===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}}