Poussin and the Vernacular: a humanist canvas Pubblico
Dalle, Alexandre (Spring 2022)
Published
Abstract
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) defined French academic art for over three centuries after his passing. His work was used as the cornerstone in the creation of French artistic identity, being used as a model by artists such as Charles Lebrun and Jacques-Louis David a century later. Yet there is no contemporary scholarship consensus on the artistic vernacular of Poussin. My thesis aims to answer this question by examining different Poussin over a large extent of his career and examine the humanistic influences that translated in his work. Each chapter analyses two paintings from a particular time period of Poussin’s career. These chapters include the early years of Poussin in Rome alongside the circle of Marino’s poets, Poussin as an antiquarian and his study of Antiquity, and finally Poussin and his interactions with the French royal court and politics. Poussin’s vernacular is not a singular entity, it is an amalgamation of multiple humanistic ideals he acquired over the course of his career. One of these humanistic ideals is the study of antiquity which since his early career he perfected in order to become a historical painter with an acute knowledge of classical art, classical architecture, and classical literature. By the late 1640s, Poussin’s political opinion was much more noticeable in his painting during the epoch of the Fronde, his art encapsulating his tumultuous relationship with Cardinal Mazarin’s court. This period coincides with a majority of Poussin’s patrons comprising of French intellectuals replacing his Italian patrons. Poussin’s fame by French patrons is a major paradox of Poussin’s career, how did a French painter who lived almost exclusively in Rome become so important for French cultural identity as a whole, especially when he painted mostly for a select group of humanist patrons? Through careful analyses of Poussin’s paintings, his writings in letters, and modern-day scholars’ studies of Poussin I will attempt to shed light on the complexing artistic vernacular of Poussin.
Table of Contents
List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………1
Forward…………………………………………………………………………………….2
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………...3
Chapter 1: Poussin the Painter-Poet……………………………………………………...4
Chapter 2: Poussin a Biblical and Historical Painter…………………………………...18
Chapter 3: Rome and Paris……………………………………………………………….37
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….52
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..55
About this Honors Thesis
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