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| Nicolas Poussin Cephalus and Aurora ca. 1630 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
HISTORY: Probably in France by 1745. Mme d'Hariague sale, Mariette, Paris, 1750, with identifying description. Probably Peilhon sale, Remy, Paris 1763; John Knight collection by 1816 (lent by him in that year to the British Institution); Knight sale, Phillips, London, 1819, bought in; Knight sale, Phillips, 1821, bought Cholmondeley. Bequeathed to the National Gallery by G.J. Cholmondeley in 1831.
"Sometimes Poussin makes direct borrowings from Titian. For instance, the Cephalus in the London Cephalus and Aurora is taken from the central figure of Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne [directly below]. . . . On the other hand, if Poussin borrows freely freely from Titian, he puts his own interpretation on what he borrows. His compositions are simpler than Titian's and have a sharpness and a clarity derived from classical bas-reliefs which contrast with the richness of the Venetian painter's works. His color derives from Titian's but is purer and less broken, sacrificing richness and subtlety to simplicity. In his paintings there is more intellect and less poetry than in Titian's, and this difference is in conformity with the attitudes of the two artists toward their subjects. Titian is more influenced by Neo-Platonism than Poussin, who never paints a pure paean in praise of love as does Titian."
"The iconography of the picture is somewhat puzzling. The figure asleep in the left foreground has been interpreted by [Irving] Lavin as Tithonus, Aurora's husband, who in certain versions of the story is said to have been asleep when Aurora crept away to join Cephalus . . . but he points out that the urn probably alludes to Oceanus, the site of the first loves of Aurora and Tithonus, according to the Homeric Hymn. [Martin] Davies rejects the identification with Tithonus, on the grounds that it is usual to represent him as a very old man; but at this stage of the story it would still be reasonable to suppose him to be a man of middle years. Lavin sees Procris in the figure lying at the foot of the tree on the left, but this seems extremely unlikely, since she was far away at the time. Davies suggests that she may be an earth goddess, which seems a plausible hypothesis, since she wears a wreath of flowers and corn. If this is so, Poussin may be referring not only to the cycle of day and night, but also to the sources of fertility, since Oceanus is according to most authorities the father of all the great rivers and the source of the fertility which comes from water. If Aurora is taken as standing for fire, there could also be an allusion to the four elements. Poussin has probably followed [Vincenzo] Cartari in associating Pegasus with Aurora."
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| Titian Bacchus and Ariadne ca. 1522-23 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
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| Nicolas Poussin Cephalus and Aurora ca. 1630 oil on canvas Hovingham Hall, Yorkshire |
HISTORY: Probably in the possession of Cassiano dal Pozzo. William Worsley by 1770; by descent to the present owner [Sir William Worsley, 6th Baronet]. Comparison with two early copies confirms the fact that the original has been cut at the top, probably by about 6 inches.
"The composition is described in detail by [Giovanni Pietro] Bellori. It differs in essential features from the National Gallery Cephalus and Aurora [at top]. In the Hovingham version the figure of Tithonus-Oceanus is pushed into the background, and there is no Ceres. As regards the chariot and horses, Poussin has here followed the Homeric Hymn in showing two horses, instead of the single Pegasus as in the National Gallery picture. Facing Cephalus and Aurora on the left stand two of the Horae, who, as Bellori explains, are reminding Aurora that it is time for her to be on her way. Below them sits Zephyr, who, according to Bellori, is present not because he is a morning wind but as the representative of Spring, the season of love. Bellori says that the swan who accompanies him is present because Zephyr incites it to sing. He gives no authority for this association and it seems more likely that the swan is shown here because it is regularly associated with the sun on account of its whiteness, which is a symbol of light."
"In these Ovidian and allegorical paintings of the early 1630's Poussin relies more than at any other period on Titian as a model. His color, his use of light, and his introduction of landscape are all inspired by the Este Bacchanals, but Poussin never has the richness of composition that is so marked in Titian's Bacchanals. In fact his compositional methods at this time are surprisingly simple. Usually the figures are strung out in profile view, forming a loosely constructed bas-relief pattern across the foreground, without defining any clear space. . . . The landscape forms a back cloth, again without spatial definition and with no clearly defined relation to the figure group. For Poussin's purpose at this particular moment, clear spatial definition was not an object; indeed, if it had been too clear, it might have destroyed the mystery of the paintings."
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| Nicolas Poussin Diana and Endymion ca. 1631-33 oil on canvas Detroit Institute of Arts |
HISTORY: In the collection of Cardinal Mazarin by 1653. Presumably passed to the Duc de Mazarin or Filippo Mancini. Perhaps John van Spangen sale, Ford, London, 1743. . . . Perhaps Cardinal Fesch, 1841; Fesch sale, George, Rome, 1845. The Detroit picture was bought from an English private collection by Cassirer, Berlin; bought from him in 1922 by Julius Haas, Detroit; Mrs. Trent McMalt, Detroit; bought by the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1936.
"The figure of Diana is related in its general character to those on Roman sarcophagus reliefs of Diana and Endymion . . . but Poussin has invented a completely new composition, and the introduction of the chariot of Apollo in the sky has apparently no parallel in ancient art."
HISTORY: A painting of this subject was in the collection of Zacharie de Raousset, Comte de Boulbon, at Aix-en-Provence in 1739. This cannot be the Caen painting [directly below], which was already in the French Royal Collection, and it is therefore quite likely to be the Rhode Island picture. Earl Waldegrave sale, Prestage, London, 1763 (probably bought in Paris between 1730 and 1740 when Lord Waldegrave was Ambassador to Louis XV). Lord Carrington by 1842. Passed by descent to the 6th Lord Carrington; Carrington sale, Christie, London, 1951; bought by the RISD Gallery in 1954.
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| Nicolas Poussin Phaëthon begging the Chariot of Apollo ca. 1633-35 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
HISTORY: Jean Michel Picart [Flemish painter and picture dealer] in 1674. Recorded in the Neues Palais, Potsdam in 1773.
"The subject is taken from Ovid. Poussin has followed the text closely in showing the Four Seasons surrounding Apollo. The poet further tells us that "To right and left stood Day and Month and Year and Century and the Hours set at equal distances." Here the painter has followed him closely, but the Hours are seen harnessing the horses to the chariot of Apollo and the Year is represented by the circle of the Zodiac. The remaining elements may be regarded as all subsumed under the figure of Father Time, who stands on the left behind the crouching old man who symbolizes Winter."
"In Phaëthon begging the Chariot of Apollo, for instance, we see the sun surrounded by the circle of the Zodiac and before him the four Seasons and the figure of Time himself; and both Diana and Endymion and Cephalus and Aurora allude to the day-and-night cycle, a point which is emphasized by the presence of Apollo in his chariot in the former, and the swan, the bird sacred to Apollo, in one version of the latter. Moreover, the story of Diana and Endymion was for the ancients a symbol of the sleep of death and the revival in paradise and was for that reason frequently represented on sarcophagi, some of which must have been known to Poussin and his friends. In a surprising number of cases, therefore, Poussin's mythological paintings dating from before about 1635 illustrate stories which in antiquity had some allusion to the cycles of nature, or the the life after death, and, given the inclinations of the learned circles for which he worked, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he was aware of these implications, and that he or his patrons chose the subjects for that very reason."
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| Nicolas Poussin Midas washing at the source of the River Pactolus ca. 1629-30 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
HISTORY: Cardinal Camilo Massimi; on his death bequeathed to his brother, Fabio Camillo Massimi. Possibly Donjeux sale, Lebrun, Paris, 1793. Probably Solirène sale, Henry, Paris 1829, presumably bought in; bought from Solirène by J. Smith in 1836. The Metropolitan picture was acquired in 1871. According to Sterling, it came from the collections of the Earl of Shaftesbury and Count Cornet, Brussels.
"This foolish king [Midas], who was offered by Bacchus the gratification of any wish, asked that everything he touched be turned to gold. When he found that all his food turned to gold, he went back to Bacchus, who told him that if he washed in the source of the river Pactolus, he would lose the gift. [In the painting above, Midas is only partially visible at left, while the full figure, seen from the back reclining, is the personification of the river]. Here again the allegory is clear. Just as the Arcadian Shepherds taught the frailty of human happiness, so this picture teaches the futility of riches. Poussin had already painted the last episode of the story in the painting now in Ajaccio [below], which shows Midas sitting by the source of the Pactolus and watching a youth picking out of the water the grains of gold which the river produced since taking from Midas the gift which he had so imprudently asked of Bacchus."
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| Nicolas Poussin Midas at the source of the River Pactolus ca. 1629-30 oil on canvas Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica |
HISTORY: Stefano Roccatagliata; Valguarnera; Cardinal Fesch; bequeathed by him to the museum in 1839. At the trial of [Don Fabritio] Valguarnera in 1631 the dealer Roccatagliata stated that he had sold the Sicilian "un quadrettino d'un Rè Mida con altra figurina ignuda . . . di Monsù Posin," a description which would exactly fit the Ajaccio picture. The painting can therefore be dated before 1631.
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| Nicolas Poussin Mars and Venus ca. 1629-30 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
HISTORY: Probably Cassiano dal Pozzo. Almost certainly Furness sale, 1758, as Venus and Adonis, bought by the 1st Earl Harcourt; by descent to the 2nd Viscount Harcourt; bought from him by the Museum of Fine Arts in 1940.
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| Nicolas Poussin Venus and Adonis ca. 1630-31 oil on canvas Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island |
HISTORY: A painting of this subject was in the collection of Zacharie de Raousset, Comte de Boulbon, at Aix-en-Provence in 1739. This cannot be the Caen painting [directly below], which was already in the French Royal Collection, and it is therefore quite likely to be the Rhode Island picture. Earl Waldegrave sale, Prestage, London, 1763 (probably bought in Paris between 1730 and 1740 when Lord Waldegrave was Ambassador to Louis XV). Lord Carrington by 1842. Passed by descent to the 6th Lord Carrington; Carrington sale, Christie, London, 1951; bought by the RISD Gallery in 1954.
"In some of these Ovidian pictures by Poussin there are allegorical allusions which, although their content is erotic, yet emphasize the detachment of the theme from the senses. The Venus and Adonis, for instance, now in Providence, Rhode Island, is in its treatment of the two lovers one of Poussin's frankest inventions. But the spectator's attention is to some extent drawn away from the principal group by the scene on the left, which occupies almost a third of the composition and shows a group of putti catching a hare, while other putti round the chariot of Venus stretch out their arms toward it, and the two hounds strain their leashes to get at it. This is a direct reference to the Erotes described by Philostratus, in which the author describes a group of cupids trying to catch a hare, an animal, he tells us, loved by Venus because, unlike other animals, it is capable of the act of love in all seasons of the year, and the female seeks to become pregnant again as soon as she has borne a littler. By this allusion Poussin transports the whole story to the world in which Cassiano dal Pozzo and his friends were at home, the world of classical allegory rather than that of physical reality."
HISTORY: Listed in the inventory of the French Royal Collection drawn up soon after 1683. Sent from the Louvre to Caen in 1804.
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| Nicolas Poussin Venus with the dead Adonis ca. 1630 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen |
HISTORY: Listed in the inventory of the French Royal Collection drawn up soon after 1683. Sent from the Louvre to Caen in 1804.
"Poussin has chosen an unusual moment in the story of Venus and Adonis for his painting. An artist like Guercino, whose interest lies in the love tragedy, normally depicts the moment when Venus comes upon the body of her lover killed by the boar [directly below]; but Poussin has selected a later part of the story, and shows Venus pouring nectar into the wound of Adonis, from the blood of which springs the scarlet anemone, the flower in which his memory was immortalized. Now, the myth of the death and rebirth of Adonis, symbolizing the death of nature in winter, and its rebirth in spring, became a widespread image of death and resurrection in general."
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| Guercino Venus discovering the dying Adonis 1647 engraving by Pietro Bonato (1807) of painting formerly in Dresden but destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II British Museum |
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| Nicolas Poussin Venus spied on by Shepherds ca. 1630-31 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Dresden |
HISTORY: Bought for the Electoral Collection through Leplat in Paris before 1722, when it is recorded in the Dresden inventory.
"The picture is often described as "A Nymph spied on by Shepherds," and this may be correct; but the two winged putti with their bows and arrows suggest a mythological subject. Moreover, in a painting similar in general character in the Brunswick museum, tentatively attributed to Domenichino, the principal figure is certainly Venus, since the doves, sacred to the goddess, appear on the wall behind the sleeping figure. Poussin is certainly credited with painting this subject, since Loménie de Brienne tells a melancholy story of mutilating a painting of this type, which belonged to him, in the supposed interests of morality. . . . I have not seen the original for many years, but from my memory and from good reproductions its authenticity does not appear above suspicion. In particular the heads of the shepherds on the right seem unlike Poussin in type and handling. It might be argued that they are repainted, but they appear in almost identical form in the copy in Vienna."
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| Nicolas Poussin Venus and Cupid ca. 1630-40 engraving made by Étienne Baudet in 1665 of now-lost painting British Museum |
HISTORY: Original lost. Possibly Cassiano dal Pozzo. According to the Triqueti manuscript list of Poussin's works, a painting corresponding to the engraving belonged in his day (i.e. ca. 1850) to "M. de la Salle," presumably the collector His de la Salle [1795-1878].
"Since Baudet's engraving was made in Rome, the original was presumably there in 1665. It may, therefore, have been the Venus recorded as belonging to Pozzo in the account of the collection among the paper of Robert de Cotte. In the absence of the original, it is impossible to propose a precise dating, but from the engraving it is safe to conclude that it must have been executed in the 1630's."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Nurture of Bacchus ca. 1629-30 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
HISTORY: Duc de Tallard sale, Remy, Paris, 1756; Mariette sale, Basan, Paris, 1775. Possibly Thomas Bowes sale, Coxe, London, 1812. John Knight by 1813; lent by him to the British Institution in 1816; Knight sale, Phillips, London, 1819, bought in; Knight sale, Phillips, London, 1821, bought Cholmondeley. Bequeathed to the Gallery by G.J. Cholmondeley in 1831, with a life interest to the Hon. Mrs. Phipps; entered the National Gallery in 1836.
"In the first half of the 1630's, Poussin also painted scenes connected with Bacchus. One of these represents the nurture of Bacchus and shows the god being fed by a satyr, a shepherd, and a nymph, with juice squeezed from a bunch of grapes. In this case the dramatis personae can be clearly defined. According to Apollodorus, the infant Bacchus was handed over to Athamas and Ino, who had two sons, Laerches and Melicertes, no doubt the two children on the left of the picture. This story would account for all the human beings in the painting, the others, apart from the god himself, being the satyr and the winged Cupid, who leads in the goat, an animal sacred to Bacchus and perhaps the source of the milk given by the nymphs to Bacchus, according to some ancient writers. . . . The National Gallery picture is apparently unfinished in certain parts of the landscape on the left, but it is unquestionably from the hand of Poussin."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Youth of Bacchus ca. 1630-35 oil on canvas Musée Condé, Chantilly |
HISTORY: Possibly John Purling sale, White, London, 1801. The Chantilly picture was bought by the Duc d'Aumale at the Northwick sale, Phillips, Cheltenham, 1859. Bequeathed with the remainder of the collection to the Musée Condé in 1897.
"In its present state the picture is very hard to judge, owing to the darkening effect of the bolus [varnish]. In certain respects it is close to paintings like the National Gallery Nurture of Bacchus [above], but the carefully calculated pyramidal composition and the statuesque nymphs indicate a later period and have even some connection with paintings of the last years of the 1630s."
– Anthony Blunt, Nicolas Poussin, (Phaidon Press, 1958) and The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: Critical Catalogue (Phaidon Press, 1966)