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| Nicolas Poussin Martyrdom of St Erasmus ca. 1628-29 oil on canvas (modello for altarpiece) National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa |
HISTORY: Recorded as in the Palazzo Barberini by [Nicodemus] Tessin in 1687-88 and almost certainly acquired by Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Passed by inheritance to the Colonna di Sciarra through the marriage of Cornelia Costanza Barberini (1716-97) to Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra in 1728. Recorded in their palace by [Andrea] Manazzale in 1816, and by [Jacob] Burckhardt in 1855. Bought from the Colonna di Sciarra by Fairfax Murray before 1914 and sold by him to Ugo Ojetti, Florence. [Purchased by the National Gallery of Canada in 1972.]
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| Nicolas Poussin Martyrdom of St Erasmus 1628-29 oil on canvas Vatican Pinacoteca, Rome |
HISTORY: Commissioned for St. Peter's in February 1628; payments from June to September 1629, with a special additional payment in October 1629. [André] Félibien says that Poussin obtained the commission through [Cassiano dal] Pozzo, but [Gianlorenzo] Bernini told [Paul Fréart de] Chantelou that he was responsible for its being given to the artist. It is, of course, quite posible that both men recommended him. Replaced by a mosaic [of the same image, standard practice in St. Peter's Basilica] and removed to the Quirinal before 1763.
"The order to paint the Martyrdom of St. Erasmus for an altar in St. Peter's was for Poussin an event of the greatest importance, since such a commission was the highest aim of every young artist in Rome, and was the sign that he had entered the circle of papal favor. The painting shows for Poussin an unusually dramatic treatment of horror and emotion . . . but at the same time, decorum, in the classical sense, is preserved. The face of the saint shows anguish, but in the convention of the Laocoön, and his body preserves the noble forms of a classical marble."
"The iconography of the painting calls for some comment. According to the early legends, St. Erasmus was subjected to various tortures but survived them miraculously and died a natural death. He was venerated under the abbreviated form of St. Elmo, as the patron saint of sailors, and was therefore sometimes depicted holding a windlass with a rope wound round it. In late medieval art of the North, the meaning of this symbol was mistaken and the legend transformed to the version shown by Poussin, namely that the saint's intestines were wound out on a windlass. The altarpiece for St. Peter's is one of the earliest examples in Italian art of the saint's martyrdom being presented in this manner, the only earlier instance traceable being the painting by Carlo Saraceni (died 1620) in the choir of Gaeta Cathedral, which is dedicated to the saint. The choice of iconography was evidently not made by Poussin but decided by the ecclesiastical authorities."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Entry of Christ into Jerusalem ca. 1628-30 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy |
HISTORY: Mentioned by [Étienne-Maurice] Falconet in a letter to Catherine II of Russia (25.x.1783) as having been brought from Paris by a dealer for sale in St. Petersburg and recommended by him to the Empress; presumably rejected by the Empress but bought by Falconet; passed to his granddaughter, Baronne de Jankowitz, and bequeathed by her on her death in 1866 to the city of Nancy.
"The Entry into Jerusalem is original in its presentation of the subject, for the scene is viewed from inside the city gate, with Christ advancing toward the spectator and not, as is usual, from the outside, with the procession going into a gate shown in the middle distance."
HISTORY: Painted for a church in Valenciennes. Duc de Richelieu [possibly acquired by means of French military looting before 1659]; bought with his collection by Louis XIV in 1665.
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| Nicolas Poussin The Virgin Appearing to St. James ca. 1629-30 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Painted for a church in Valenciennes. Duc de Richelieu [possibly acquired by means of French military looting before 1659]; bought with his collection by Louis XIV in 1665.
"In some ways the most Baroque of the whole group of paintings under discussion is the Virgin Appearing to St. James. According to [Giovanni Pietro] Bellori and [André] Félibien, this was painted for a church in Valenciennes, but nothing is known of how the commission reached Poussin in Rome. It was, however, almost certainly through a Spaniard, since Valenciennes was at that time in the Spanish Netherlands, and the subject, which represents the miraculous appearance that took place at Saragossa, was one to which the Spaniards attached great importance, particularly at this moment, when the cult of St. James and the story of his mission to Spain were very much under discussion. In this picture, Poussin has adopted a fully Baroque formula."
"The Virgin is of the type that Poussin had used for similar figures in all the large figure paintings of the late twenties and has the floating veil to be seen in several Holy Families; the St. James is like the Joseph in the Flight into Egypt, and Poussin has given the saint's companions the dark archaic beards that appear in his paintings from the Golden Calf onwards; but the whole painting is much nearer to [Gianlorenzo] Bernini in feeling than any other work produced by Poussin, and it was not by chance that the sculptor particularly admired it when he saw it in the Duc de Richelieu's collection in Paris. It is also the only surviving painting by Poussin in which a definitely Caravaggesque detail can be found: the dusty feet of the man kneeling in the foreground are imitated from Caravaggio's Madonna di Loreto in Sant' Agostino [in Rome], where they have exactly the same intention, to emphasize the fact that the person concerned is a pilgrim with the dust of the road on his feet."
HISTORY: Probably J.B. Grimbergs sale, Brussels, 1716. Perhaps the painting which in 1687 belonged to Pierre de Beauchamp, Maître de Ballets du Roi. Bought [by Catherine II, Empress of Russia] with the collection of Count Brühl, Minister of Augustus of Saxony, in 1769.
"In the Deposition in the Hermitage the drama is primarily conveyed by the violent, almost grimacing expressions of the two mourning figures, but is intensified by the somber coloring, the strong chiaroscuro, and the vehemence of the design, with its emphatic diagonal leading from the putti at the feet of Christ to the head of St. John."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Deposition ca. 1629-30 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
HISTORY: Probably J.B. Grimbergs sale, Brussels, 1716. Perhaps the painting which in 1687 belonged to Pierre de Beauchamp, Maître de Ballets du Roi. Bought [by Catherine II, Empress of Russia] with the collection of Count Brühl, Minister of Augustus of Saxony, in 1769.
"In the Deposition in the Hermitage the drama is primarily conveyed by the violent, almost grimacing expressions of the two mourning figures, but is intensified by the somber coloring, the strong chiaroscuro, and the vehemence of the design, with its emphatic diagonal leading from the putti at the feet of Christ to the head of St. John."
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| Nicolas Poussin Adoration of the Magi 1633 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Dresden |
HISTORY: Probably the painting seen by [Gianlorenzo] Bernini [while visiting Paris] in the house of Cotteblanche in 1665, which had previously belonged to Martin de Charmois, the founder of the Academy (died 1661). According to a tradition, recorded in the Dresden catalogue, it later belonged to 'Lord Waldegrave,' presumably Earl Waldegrave, who was ambassador to Paris till 1740; it was perhaps left there when he quitted his post. Bought by Augustus III of Saxony in Paris through de Brais in 1742.
"The next firm point in the chronology of Poussin's works is the Adoration of the Magi at Dresden, which is dated 1633. The painting is strikingly different from any of Poussin's works of the immediately preceding years. The choice of a conventional religious theme may be in part due to the commission, but the change of style cannot be accounted for by external circumstances; and the change is indeed profound: mood, lighting, color, spatial arrangement, and figure grouping, all are different."
"Instead of a poetical theme rendered in Venetian coloring and somber lighting, we find a conventional story told in factual terms, seen in clear daylight, with fully modeled figures set in a clearly defined space. The foreground is filled with a group of figures, each conceived as a free-standing statue, occupying a stage in front of a ruined temple of which the stylobate forms a flat plane parallel with that of the picture. Behind this, the recession is defined by the beams which link the front columns with the plastered back wall. On the right, this lead into space is emphasized by the drum of a column, which draws the eye into the picture toward the background where we see the train of the three kings with their attendants, horses, and camels. The whole scene is illuminated by the sun, which serves to model forms and, by means of the cast shadows of the architecture, to emphasize the spatial construction. Here is nothing of the romantic twilight or the evocative atmosphere of the Ovidian elegies, and the influence of Titian has vanished. It is significant that Poussin has now turned to other and, one can almost say, opposite models: Raphael, Annibale Carracci, and Domenichino."
"The connections of the Dresden Adoration with Giulio Romano, Raphael, Annibale Carracci, and Domenichino are of importance because they are significant of a fundamental change which was taking place in Poussin's style at this time and which was to affect his whole career. In later years, according to his biographers, Poussin spoke of his early Venetian period as a sort of error of which he was almost ashamed. He had been deceived, he said, by the charms of color and the sensuous attractions of Venetian painting but later realized that these were superficial qualities and therefore he sacrificed color to drawing, and Titian to Raphael and the Antique. We may not agree with the judgment of values implied in such an assessment of his works, but this definition of the difference between his earlier and later styles touches on the essential point, and it is at this moment that the first signs of the change appear."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Virgin Protecting the city of Spoleto or, The Translation of St. Rita of Cascia ca. 1635 oil on panel Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
HISTORY: Perhaps painted for Cassiano dal Pozzo. About 1800 belonged to Noël Desenfans. At his death in 1807 it passed with the whole collection to his friend, Sir Francis Bourgeois, who bequeathed it, together with his other pictures, to Dulwich College in 1811 [whose art collection passed to the Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1817].
"The painting was described in the nineteenth century as an Assumption, but this identification does not seem to be correct, since neither tomb nor Apostles are depicted. Moreover, the town in the middle distance seems fairly certainly to represent Spoleto, of which Urban VIII and after his election as pope in 1623, his nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini, were archbishops." [Curators at the Dulwich Picture Gallery now identify the picture as The Translation of St. Rita of Cascia (Cascia being an Augustinian convent, near Spoleto.)]
"The means that Poussin here uses to construct his landscape are the stock in trade of the Mannerist landscape painters: a repoussoir of rocks and trees, a middle distance – not very clearly related to the foreground – containing the town itself, and a far distance of receding mountains. But the result . . . is painted with great freedom and warmth."
HISTORY: Belonged in 1685 to André le Nôtre and given by him to Louis XIV in 1693.
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| Nicolas Poussin Rest on the Flight into Egypt ca. 1636-37 oil on canvas Oskar Reinhart Institute, Winterthur, Switzerland |
HISTORY: Perhaps Crozat sale, Delatour, Paris, 1751; Thélusson sale, Folliot, Paris, 1777; Marquis de Véri sale, Paillet, Paris, 1785, bought be Lebrun; belonged to William Lock; sold by him to van Heythusen and by him to [Noël] Desenfans; passed to the Marquis of Lansdowne; In Lansdowne collection when engraved by [Francesco] Bartolozzi in 1796; Lansdowne sale, Coxe, London, 1806, bought Earl of Grosvenor; by descent to the Dukes of Westminster; Westminster sale, Christie, 1924, bought Wildenstein; bought by [the Oskar Reinhart Institute] in 1926.
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| Nicolas Poussin St. John Baptising the People ca. 1636-37 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Belonged in 1685 to André le Nôtre and given by him to Louis XIV in 1693.
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| Nicolas Poussin St. John Baptising the People ca. 1636-37 oil on canvas Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
HISTORY: Cassiano dal Pozzo; by descent to his nephew; ca. 1725 given by him to the Marchese del Buffalo with the Seven Sacraments as a pledge for a debt of 6000 crowns and offered for sale by Buffalo in 1729 to Louis XV; recovered by Pozzo in 1730; passed through his daughter to the Boccapaduli family, probably in 1759; bought by Byres for the Duke of Rutland in 1785; sold by his descendant in 1958 [to Emil Georg Bührle of Zürich; sold by his heirs to the Marlborough Gallery, London in 1966; purchased by the Getty Museum in 1971].
"My temperament compels me to look for and take pleasure in well-ordered things. I avoid confusion, which is contrary and opposed to my nature, just as light is opposed to the darkness of night," wrote Nicolas Poussin. Saint John baptizes the multitudes in an ideal landscape, framed by a tree trunk on each side. Clothed in antique costumes, the orderly followers have arranged themselves into a carefully balanced frieze. As always, Poussin approached this religious work from the tradition of order, clarity, and harmony associated with the art of ancient Greece and Rome." – (from curator's notes at the Getty Museum)
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| Nicolas Poussin Landscape with St Jerome ca. 1636-37 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
HISTORY: Probably commissioned by Philip IV for the palace of Buen Retiro, near Madrid, as part of a series of paintings [commissioned from numerous Roman artists] representing anchorites, and recorded in the inventory of the pictures there made in 1700.
"The Landscape with St. Jerome combines something of the new clarity visible in the Juno with the mastery of distance shown in the view of Spoleto. It also shows for the first time Poussin's interest in the actual growth of different trees. In the Numa these are completely generalized, and though in the Juno there is more variety, the structure is still arbitrary. The St. Jerome is the work of a man who loves and has carefully studied the trees that he paints and wants to give each its peculiar character."
HISTORY: Possibly belonged to [André] le Nôtre and listed in the inventory taken at his death as un grand tableau du Poussin, peint sur toile, bordure de bois doré, représentant une Nativité, ayant 3 pieds et demi de haut sure deux pieds de largeur. De Salle sale, Remy, Paris, 1761 (stated to be engraved by Picart with dedication to Colbert), bought Thibauts. Sir Joshua Reynolds sale, Christie, London 1795, bought Henry Walton, presumably for Sir Thomas Beauchamp-Proctor; by descent to Jocelyn Beauchamp; sold, Sotheby, London, 1956, bought D. Knoetser; bought from him by the National Gallery in 1957.
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| Nicolas Poussin Adoration of the Shepherds ca. 1637 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
HISTORY: Possibly belonged to [André] le Nôtre and listed in the inventory taken at his death as un grand tableau du Poussin, peint sur toile, bordure de bois doré, représentant une Nativité, ayant 3 pieds et demi de haut sure deux pieds de largeur. De Salle sale, Remy, Paris, 1761 (stated to be engraved by Picart with dedication to Colbert), bought Thibauts. Sir Joshua Reynolds sale, Christie, London 1795, bought Henry Walton, presumably for Sir Thomas Beauchamp-Proctor; by descent to Jocelyn Beauchamp; sold, Sotheby, London, 1956, bought D. Knoetser; bought from him by the National Gallery in 1957.
"Following an old tradition in painting, Poussin includes both parts of the story and paints them as if they are happening at the same time. The architecture separates the foreground scene from the activity in the background [where an angel proclaims the birth of Christ]. The stable is built within the ruins of a classical building with columns that frame the scene, symbolising the collapse of paganism and the triumph of Christianity. . . . A young lady enters the scene carrying a 'birth tray' of fruits as a present for the new mother – these were popular in Italy, and appear in Renaissance paintings of the Nativity. She hurries forwards, her flamboyant drapery billowing behind her as she moves. Its vivid blue, and that of Mary's clothing, stands out against the men's ruddy skin and the copper stone of the buildings. Poussin's interest in classical antiquity is clear in the rigid drapery folds and the shepherd's muscular appearance, which are based on ancient statues." – (from curator's notes at the National Gallery)
HISTORY: Probably painted for Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clement IX; recorded in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome, at various periods till 1803; bought by Cardinal Fesch; Fesch sale, George, Rome, 1845, bought George; Forcade sale, Pillet, Paris, 1873; Chennevières-Pointel collection, 1914; present whereabouts unknown.
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| Nicolas Poussin Rest on the Flight into Egypt ca. 1638-39 engraving by Raphael Morghen (1787) of now-unlocated painting Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
HISTORY: Probably painted for Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clement IX; recorded in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome, at various periods till 1803; bought by Cardinal Fesch; Fesch sale, George, Rome, 1845, bought George; Forcade sale, Pillet, Paris, 1873; Chennevières-Pointel collection, 1914; present whereabouts unknown.
"Before the artist's departure for Paris [in 1640], Rospigliosi apparently commissioned a Rest on the Flight into Egypt, formerly in the Palazzo Rospigliosi but now only known from engravings. This shows in the background an elephant, which might be thought to be a piece of local color to indicate that the scene is taking place in Egypt, but in fact, the elephant does not seem to have been so used and is generally associated with India rather than Africa in the seventeenth century. In the case of the Rest it is more likely to have a symbolical meaning, since it was frequently cited by ancient writers as the most religious of animals, and was used with this significance by [Gianlorenzo] Bernini and others in the seventeenth century. Such a use would be completely in accordance with Cardinal Rospigliosi's interest in allegory."
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| Nicolas Poussin St. Margaret ca. 1638-40 oil on canvas Galleria Sabauda, Turin |
HISTORY: Prince Eugene of Savoy (died 1736); passed at his death to his niece, Princess Victoria of Savoy, who married the Duke of Sachsen-Hildburghausen; sold by her to Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia, in 1741; thence by descent in the house of Savoy; taken to Paris in 1799 [by Napoleonic forces] and returned to Turin after 1815.
"It is not known by whom or in what circumstances the picture was commissioned, but it may well have been through the instrumentality of Cassiano dal Pozzo's cousin, Amadeo, Marchese di Voghera, who lived in Turin and had previously commissioned the Crossing of the Red Sea and the Golden Calf. The St. Margaret is, however, not mentioned by travellers who saw Amadeo dal Pozzo's collection, and it is likely that, if he was responsible for the commission, it was on behalf of a church rather than for himself. The scale of the painting would confirm this hypothesis, but no composition of this kind seems to be recorded by travellers in Piedmont or the author's old guide books. Alternatively, Prince Eugene may have acquired the picture as loot on one of his campaigns."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Institution of the Eucharist 1640 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Commissioned by Louis XIII in December 1640 for the chapel at Saint-Germain; in May 1641 Poussin [then in Paris] was working on it actively; on 19 August he reports that it is still unfinished, but by 20 September it has already been set up in the chapel. The payment for the picture was made on 16 September. The picture was taken to the Louvre in 1792.
– Anthony Blunt, Nicolas Poussin, (Phaidon Press, 1958) and The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: Critical Catalogue (Phaidon Press, 1966)