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| Nicolas Poussin The Arcadia Shepherds ca. 1629-30 oil on canvas Chatsworth, Derbyshire |
HISTORY: Cardinal Camillo Massimi; on his death in 1677 bequeathed to his brother, Fabio Camillo Massimi. . . . What appears to be the Chatsworth picture is recorded in France before the end of the seventeenth century in the collection of Mme. du Housset, a relation of Loménie de Brienne, who obtained it from her. The Chatsworth picture is first mentioned in England as in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire in 1761.
"The idea of the painting is clear, though its exact interpretation has given rise to lengthy and not always profitable discussion. A group of shepherds and shepherdesses in the idyllic land of Arcadia suddenly come upon a tomb above which is a skull and on which they decipher the inscription Et in Arcadia ego. This shocks them into recognition of the fact that even in complete happiness death is ever present. The painting is in keeping with the idea behind many of Poussin's elegiac paintings of this phase, and its poetical mood imposes itself deeply. As an evocation of the ephemeral quality of human happiness it is as moving as Villon's lament on the passing of human beauty – mais où sont les neiges d'antan? It does not, like many of Poussin's later works, inculcate moral principle; it provokes meditation on the frailty of things human."
HISTORY: Probably belonged to the Chevalier d'Avice; bought by Louis XIV from C.A. Hérault in 1685.
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| Nicolas Poussin The Arcadia Shepherds ca. 1655-60 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Probably belonged to the Chevalier d'Avice; bought by Louis XIV from C.A. Hérault in 1685.
"[Otto] Grautoff dated this picture 1638-39; [Walter] Friedländer suggested that it may have been painted just before the journey to Paris, but was on the whole inclined to place it just after Poussin's return to Rome at the end of 1642. In the catalogue of the Louvre exhibition [in 1960] I proposed a much later dating, to the years 1650-55. . . . Finally, I had the opportunity of seeing the Shepherds side by side with the Munich Adoration of the Shepherds when it was brought to Paris for a short time during the Poussin Exhibition, and there seemed to me no doubt that the two paintings dated from the same period, that is to say after 1655."
"Poussin's figure compositions representing subjects from classical history reveal the same changes of style [in the period 1654-1665] as the religious paintings. In the mid-1650s he painted a new version of the Arcadian Shepherds, out of which he had made one of his most perfect Titianesque romantic compositions; but now the mood is different. The urgency of the earlier design, with the figures rushing forward to read the inscription on the tomb, has given way to a tone of contemplation, as the shepherds kneel or stand silently, meditating on the lesson which they have just read. The only gesture which breaks the absolute detachment of each figure is that of the kneeling shepherd who turns round to make certain that the shepherdess has understood the burden of the words, but his gesture hardly disturbs the silence of the whole scene. This deep calm is also expressive of a slight change in the moral of the story. In the earlier version the agitation of the figures conveys the shock which the discovery of death has caused. In the second version all feeling of fear has vanished, and the shepherds and shepherdess contemplate death in undisturbed detachment, consonant with the principles of Stoicism."
HISTORY: Painted for Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clement IX; remained in the Palazzo Rospigliosi till after 1800. Bought from the palace by Cardinal Fesch; Fesch sale, Rome, 1845, bought by Laneauville for the Marquis of Hertford; by bequest to Sir Richard Wallace; bequeathed to the nation by his widow in 1897.
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| Nicolas Poussin The Arcadia Shepherds (detail) ca. 1655-60 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Nicolas Poussin Dance to the Music of Time ca. 1639-40 oil on canvas Wallace Collection, London |
HISTORY: Painted for Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clement IX; remained in the Palazzo Rospigliosi till after 1800. Bought from the palace by Cardinal Fesch; Fesch sale, Rome, 1845, bought by Laneauville for the Marquis of Hertford; by bequest to Sir Richard Wallace; bequeathed to the nation by his widow in 1897.
"In some of the paintings of 1639, however, a new type of subject matter becomes apparent. The Dance to the Music of Time is, according to [Giovanni Pietro] Bellori, a sort of Wheel of Fortune, showing the four states – poverty, industry, richness, luxury – through which man passes in an eternal series of revolutions. On the right, Time plays the tune to which the dancers move, and in the foreground sit two putti, one holding an hourglass to symbolize the passage of time, the other blowing a bubble to indicate the ephemeral character of wealth and happiness."
HISTORY: Commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu in 1641 for the ceiling of the Grand Cabinet in the Palais Cardinal, together with the Moses and the Burning Bush, which was placed over the fireplace. Bequeathed with the Palais Cardinal to Louis XIII. According to Sauval, taken to Fontainebleau by Anne of Austria; inserted in the ceiling of the Cabinet du Roi in the Louvre in 1658; replaced by a copy made by Challe in 1752, when the original was removed.
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| Nicolas Poussin Time saving Truth from Envy and Discord 1641 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu in 1641 for the ceiling of the Grand Cabinet in the Palais Cardinal, together with the Moses and the Burning Bush, which was placed over the fireplace. Bequeathed with the Palais Cardinal to Louis XIII. According to Sauval, taken to Fontainebleau by Anne of Austria; inserted in the ceiling of the Cabinet du Roi in the Louvre in 1658; replaced by a copy made by Challe in 1752, when the original was removed.
"Given the conditions under which Poussin worked in Paris, it is not surprising that the paintings which he produced as a result of his official commissions are among the least attractive of his works; and yet they are of some significance in the development of his style and have more merits than are commonly allowed to them. . . . The Time Saving Truth, being a ceiling painting, presents different problems, and Poussin has made more concessions than usual to Baroque methods in his use of di sotto in sù viewpoint and the trompe-l'œil effect of the quatrefoil opening; but compared with what was being produced in Rome at the same time, Poussin's composition seems a model of classical simplicity and lucidity."
HISTORY: Painted for Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clement IX. In the Palazzo Rospigliosi till about 1800, [after which the original can no longer be traced and is presumed lost].
HISTORY: Cardinal Mazarin by 1653; passed at his death either to Hortense Mancini, wife of the Duc de La Meilleraye, who became Duc de Mazarin, or to Filippo Mancini. Seen by [Gianlorenzo] Bernini in the Palais Mazarin in 1665. . . . Probably in an anonymous sale of pictures 'consigned from abroad' at Christie, London, 1772. . . . Recorded in the account given by Westmacott of the collection of Thomas Hope in 1824. . . . Passed by descent with the Hope collection to Henrietta Adela Hope, who married the 6th Duke of Newcastle, and bequeathed the collection to her grandson, Lord Francis Pelham Clinton-Hope. In 1884, on an order of the Court, the greater part of the collection in the London house was sold, but the Poussin seems to have remained in the possession of Lord Francis Clinton-Hope till it was bought by Fairfax Murray in 1910 after a further Court Order. It passed to Trotti and was bought by the Louvre in 1911.
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| anonymous copy after lost painting by Nicolas Poussin Time saving Truth from Envy and Discord 17th century oil on canvas private collection |
HISTORY: Painted for Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, later Pope Clement IX. In the Palazzo Rospigliosi till about 1800, [after which the original can no longer be traced and is presumed lost].
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| Nicolas Poussin Inspiration of the Epic Poet ca. 1630 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Cardinal Mazarin by 1653; passed at his death either to Hortense Mancini, wife of the Duc de La Meilleraye, who became Duc de Mazarin, or to Filippo Mancini. Seen by [Gianlorenzo] Bernini in the Palais Mazarin in 1665. . . . Probably in an anonymous sale of pictures 'consigned from abroad' at Christie, London, 1772. . . . Recorded in the account given by Westmacott of the collection of Thomas Hope in 1824. . . . Passed by descent with the Hope collection to Henrietta Adela Hope, who married the 6th Duke of Newcastle, and bequeathed the collection to her grandson, Lord Francis Pelham Clinton-Hope. In 1884, on an order of the Court, the greater part of the collection in the London house was sold, but the Poussin seems to have remained in the possession of Lord Francis Clinton-Hope till it was bought by Fairfax Murray in 1910 after a further Court Order. It passed to Trotti and was bought by the Louvre in 1911.
"Poussin's painting in the first years of the 1630's was deeply influenced by the atmosphere created in the circle of Cassiano dal Pozzo, and this effect is most immediately visible in his choice of subjects. Up to this time his themes had covered a fairly wide range, and included many of those usual in Roman art of the period. . . . The only subjects treated by Poussin which stand apart from the general run of contemporary art are the poetical-allegorical themes, such as the Parnassus, the Inspiration of the Poet, and Bacchus-Apollo, all of which were probably painted for the circle around [Giambattista] Marino and Pozzo. From now on, however, the poetical subjects dominate Poussin's art."
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| Nicolas Poussin Inspiration of the Epic Poet (detail) ca. 1630 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Nicolas Poussin Inspiration of the Lyric Poet ca. 1627 oil on canvas Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover |
HISTORY: The Electors of Hanover, probably by 1679; sent to England in 1803 and recorded at Great Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, in 1812; presumably sent back to Hanover before 1837.
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| Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael Parnassus ca. 1517-20 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"There is one group of relatively small paintings [including the Inspiration of the Lyric Poet] that were probably executed about the same period [ca. 1627]. All these show the influence of Titian in the coloring and in the types. . . . But, as in the Children's Bacchanals, he [Poussin] does not deliver himself over to Titian bound hand and foot, for there are in these paintings elements that come from Raphael – the putti in the Hanover Inspiration, for instance, are taken from Marcantonio's engraving after the Parnassus – and in every case the composition is conceived more strictly in accordance with the principles of an ancient bas-relief than was the case with Titian's Bacchanals. The similarity of this group of works with the Children's Bacchanals, however, goes no further than the actual elements of which they are composed; the spirit is entirely different, and for the first time Poussin seems to have been trying to put into his paintings something of the romantic beauty of Titian's poesie, which was to be one of his chief aims in the years around 1630."
– Anthony Blunt, Nicolas Poussin, (Phaidon Press, 1958) and The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: a Critical Catalogue (Phaidon Press, 1966)