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| Nicolas Poussin Pan and Syrinx ca. 1637 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Dresden |
HISTORY: Painted about 1637 for the painter Nicolas Guillaume La Fleur, who died in Paris in 1663. The picture belonged later to the Chevalier de Lorraine, in whose collection it is recorded by [André] Félibien in 1685 and by Florent Le Comte in 1700. In fact it had probably passed before 1695 into the possession of Etienne Texier de Hautefeuille, called the Commandant or the Bailli de Hautefeuille, Ambassador of the Order of Malta to the French court, since Loménie de Brienne says of the picture that it is, "présentement dans la Cabinet du Bailly de Hautefeuille qui l'a eu du Chevalier de Lorraine." According to Saint-Simon, Hautefeuille, who died in 1703, left all his pictures to the Knights of Malta, who presumably sold them. The Dresden picture was bought by Augustus III of Saxony from the Dubreuil collection, Paris, through his agent de Brais in 1742.
"By the end of the 1630's Poussin's reputation in paris was well established. Admittedly, his first recorded commissions, the Bacchanals for Richelieu, had been sent off immediately on arrival to the cardinal's château in Poitou, but other paintings had remained in Paris: the first version of the Capture of Jerusalem and another Bacchanal were probably in one of Richelieu's houses in or near Paris; the Schoolmaster of Falerii, Moses Striking the Rock, and the Israelites Gathering the Manna were in the possession of private collectors; and the Pan and Syrinx and Armida carrying off Rinaldo had been sent by Poussin to artist friends in Paris. The arrival of these pictures in Paris must have caused a sensation. It is true that certain artists working in France, such as Jacques Blanchard, were developing toward a classical idiom independently of Poussin, but nothing of the purity and distinction of Poussin's compositions was known in Paris."
HISTORY: Painted for Cardinal Aluigi Omodei, who was trying to sell it in 1655. Almost certainly sent as a gift to Louis XIV from Rome in 1685. Recorded in the inventory of the Royal Collection made by [Charles] Lebrun at an undetermined date within a few years of 1683.
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| Nicolas Poussin The Rape of the Sabines ca. 1635 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Painted for Cardinal Aluigi Omodei, who was trying to sell it in 1655. Almost certainly sent as a gift to Louis XIV from Rome in 1685. Recorded in the inventory of the Royal Collection made by [Charles] Lebrun at an undetermined date within a few years of 1683.
"The interest in elaborate compositions made up of figures in action is further developed in the Louvre version of the Rape of the Sabines, where the whole space formed by the architecture is filled with a mass of struggling groups brought into harmony by a careful balancing of movements. . . . In some cases Poussin seems to have chosen a particular ancient building to suit the theme that he is treating. For instance, the temple in the background of the Louvre Sabines is of a primitive type with heavily proportioned Tuscan columns and enormous intercolumniations, features which are no doubt intended to suggest that the episode took place a very few years after the foundation of Rome. The building on the right of the temple carries on both the temporal and the local allusions. The fact that it is shown partly in scaffolding indicates that the city was still building."
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| Nicolas Poussin The Rape of the Sabines ca. 1637 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
HISTORY: The Duchesse d'Aiguillon almost certainly inherited the picture, with all her other possessions, from her uncle, Cardinal Richelieu, who probably received it as a gift, perhaps from Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Perhaps later belonged to Bénigne de Ragois de Bretonvilliers, as a picture of this subject is mentioned in the Hôtel de Bretonvilliers by [Germain] Brice in 1698 and in 1713, by which time the Louvre version was already in the Royal Collection. The pictures in the Hôtel de Bretonvilliers were removed and probably sold when it was taken over as offices for the Fermiers Généraux in 1719. The Metropolitan picture belonged to Henry Hoare of Stourhead, Wiltshire, by 1762. Passed by descent to Sir Henry Hoare; Hoare sale, Christie, London, 1883, bought Lesser; Sir Francis Cook; by descent to his grandson; bought from him by Knoedler in 1946; bought by the Metropolitan Museum the same year.
"In the second version [of the Sabines] Poussin has been even more explicit and has shown the Forum, where Romulus organized the games that led up to the carrying off of the Sabine women, with a basilica in the background derived from the description of Vitruvius and the engravings added to sixteenth-century editions of his Architecture. He has further depicted Romulus standing in the portico of a temple, no doubt to underline the fact that the episode took place during a religious festival, the Consuela."
" . . . Both versions contain many quotations from earlier works, such as Giambologna's famous [sculpture] group in the Loggia dei Lanzi [directly below], the Lodovisi Gaul, and Titian's Marchese del Vasto addressing his troops."
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| Giambologna The Rape of the Sabines 1582-83 marble statue group Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence |
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| Nicolas Poussin Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes ca. 1651-53 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
HISTORY: Probably the painting in a sale of pictures "consigned from abroad," Christie, London, 1777. Stephen Jarrett in 1837; James Fenton sale, Christie, London, 1880, bought Hudson. The Boston picture was with Reyre, London [and] Atri, Paris (1924) and Wildenstein (1925). Belonged to Juliana Cheyne Edwards; acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in 1946.
"The subject is taken from Hyginus, but Poussin was probably stimulated to treat it by the knowledge that it was painted in antiquity by Polygnotus (Pausanias, Attica) and Athenias of Maroneia (Pliny, Historia Naturalis)"
"The Achilles is one of Poussin's most conscious attempts to define an emotion – that of surprise mixed with fear – and it once again illustrates his use of figures gazing at each other across the foreground – here Ulysses and the disguised Achilles – as a means of unifying the whole."
HISTORY: Painted for Charles III, Duc de Créqui, in 1656; in the inventory made at his death in 1687. La Curne de Sainte-Palaye; Prince de Conti sale, Remy, Paris, 1777 (as from the La Curne de Sainte-Palaye collection); Beaujon sale, Remy, Paris, 1787 (as from the Conti sale); W. Ellis Agar (Christie, London, 1806); bought with the entire Agar collection before the sale by Lord Grosvenor; Grosvenor sale, Coxe, London, 1807; sale of pictures coming from the Agar collection, Christie, London, 1811. The Richmond picture was bought from Wildenstein in 1957.
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| Nicolas Poussin Achilles among the Daughters of Lycomedes 1656 oil on canvas Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond |
HISTORY: Painted for Charles III, Duc de Créqui, in 1656; in the inventory made at his death in 1687. La Curne de Sainte-Palaye; Prince de Conti sale, Remy, Paris, 1777 (as from the La Curne de Sainte-Palaye collection); Beaujon sale, Remy, Paris, 1787 (as from the Conti sale); W. Ellis Agar (Christie, London, 1806); bought with the entire Agar collection before the sale by Lord Grosvenor; Grosvenor sale, Coxe, London, 1807; sale of pictures coming from the Agar collection, Christie, London, 1811. The Richmond picture was bought from Wildenstein in 1957.
"The story of Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes – though not a very heroic story – provided an admirable basis for a display of psychological analysis, and in the earlier version Poussin had exploited this to the full. In the later version, all this clear exposition has been cut out, and instead the figures stand motionless, staring and expressionless. The homely touch of showing Ulysses and his companions haggling over the jewels in the first version must have seemed a little frivolous to Poussin, and in the later painting the two heroes stand like columns in the background, only reacting to the success of their plan with the slightest of gestures, and balanced by the even more architectural figure of the nurse. Behind them, a solemn landscape, with a building based on the Temple of Fortuna at Praeneste (Palestrina), in which Cassiano dal Pozzo was much interested and of which reconstructions by Pietro da Cortona were in his collection. The light of the rising sun just touches the side of the temple. A drawing exists for this composition, which is interesting on account of its relation to the painting. At this stage, Poussin was still intending to use certain motives from the earlier composition, in particular, the action of Achilles drawing the sword and the terror which it produces in one of the girls. It was only at a later stage in the evolution of the design that he decided to eliminate these features and so reduce the action in the whole composition."
HISTORY: Painted for [Michel] Passart. Pierre de Beauchamp, Maître des Ballets du Roi, by 1687. Andrew Hay sale, London, 1745, bought Duke of Rutland; Duke of Rutland sale, London, 1758, bought Joshua Reynolds; Calonne sale, Skinner and Dyke, London, 1795, as from the Reynolds collection, bought Bryan (i.e. bought by Calonne's mortgagees); Bryan pictures for sale by private treaty, 1795; Desenfans; sale of pictures bought by him for the King of Poland, Skinner and Dyke, London, 1802; Philip Panné sale, Christie, London, 1819, bought Bonnemaison; probably sold by him to the Rev. John Sanford, who lent it to the British Institution in 1821; bequeathed to his son-in-law, Lord Methuen; sold by his son in or shortly before 1924; bought by Durlacher, London, in 1924; bought by the Metropolitan Museum the same year.
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| Nicolas Poussin Landscape with Orion 1658 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
HISTORY: Painted for [Michel] Passart. Pierre de Beauchamp, Maître des Ballets du Roi, by 1687. Andrew Hay sale, London, 1745, bought Duke of Rutland; Duke of Rutland sale, London, 1758, bought Joshua Reynolds; Calonne sale, Skinner and Dyke, London, 1795, as from the Reynolds collection, bought Bryan (i.e. bought by Calonne's mortgagees); Bryan pictures for sale by private treaty, 1795; Desenfans; sale of pictures bought by him for the King of Poland, Skinner and Dyke, London, 1802; Philip Panné sale, Christie, London, 1819, bought Bonnemaison; probably sold by him to the Rev. John Sanford, who lent it to the British Institution in 1821; bequeathed to his son-in-law, Lord Methuen; sold by his son in or shortly before 1924; bought by Durlacher, London, in 1924; bought by the Metropolitan Museum the same year.
"The immediate classical source for the composition is a description of a painting in Lucian: "Orion, who is blind, is carrying Cedalion, and the latter, riding on his back, is showing him the way to the sunlight. The rising sun is healing the blindness of Orion, and Hephaestus views the incident from Lemnos." As Professor [E.H.] Gombrich points out, Poussin's rendering of the subject differs from this in one important respect: Hephaestus does not view the scene from Lemnos but stands beside Orion, pointing out to the guide the way to the rising sun, and instead it is Diana who surveys the scene, though standing on a cloud and not on the island. It was no doubt her prominence in the composition that misled [André] Félibien into describing the picture as a landscape "with Orion blinded by Diana," in spite of the fact that no classical authority attributes his blindness to the goddess. Further, no classical source would explain the cloud on which the goddess stands and which rises almost from the ground near the trees behind the giant. Professor Gombrich has pointed out that all the details of Poussin's version are explicable if we suppose that he based it on the account of Orion given by the sixteenth-century writer on mythology, Natalis Comes (Natale Conti). Comes bases his story on the obscure and curious version given by Euphorion, who attributes to the giant a triple paternity, the fathers being Neptune, Jupiter, and Apollo. Since these three gods represent water, air, and sun respectively, Comes turns the story of Orion's birth into an allegory for the creation of clouds and rain, which are compounded of these three elements. . . . Strange though this allegorization of the story is, it accounts for all the details in Poussin's composition which are not in accordance with classical sources."
HISTORY: Painted in 1649 for [Jean] Pointel. Bought by [Denis] Diderot, with the Landscape with Hercules and Cacus, from the collection of the Marquis do Conflans in 1772 for the Empress Catherine II of Russia.
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| Nicolas Poussin Landscape with Polyphemus 1649 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
HISTORY: Painted in 1649 for [Jean] Pointel. Bought by [Denis] Diderot, with the Landscape with Hercules and Cacus, from the collection of the Marquis do Conflans in 1772 for the Empress Catherine II of Russia.
"Here [in the Landscape with Polyphemus] the theme is evidently a moment in the early history of man, when he had just discovered the arts of agriculture. In the middle distance we see men digging, plowing, and watching their flocks; in the foreground are three water nymphs, the symbols of the fertility that water brings to the land, one of whom, to underline her function, has hair of a blue-green color. Behind the bushes are hidden peeping satyrs, another traditional symbol of fertility, though in the animal rather than in the vegetable kingdom. On the top of a mountain in the background is seated Polyphemus, playing on his pipes to an invisible Galatea, who is no doubt disporting herself in the sea, which is just visible in the extreme distance on the right. In classical mythology the Cyclopes stand for the Golden Age before the invention of agriculture, when man lived off the fruits of the earth, and Polyphemus therefore symbolizes the age that is disappearing before the advance of man."
HISTORY: Bought by Branjon for Louis XIV in 1685.
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| Nicolas Poussin Landscape with Polyphemus (detail) 1649 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Nicolas Poussin Landscape with Hercules and Cacus ca. 1655 oil on canvas Pushkin Museum, Moscow |
HISTORY: Bought by [Denis] Diderot (together with the Landscape with Polyphemus) in 1772 from the Marquis de Conflans for the Empress Catherine II of Russia. Sent to Moscow from the Hermitage in 1930.
"The remaining landscape of this group, the Hercules and Cacus, belongs iconographically to a slightly different type. It illustrates the defeat of the giant as told by Evander in the eighth book of the Aeneid. According to this version of the story Cacus lived in a cave on the side of the Aventine. Poussin's landscape bears no relation to the actual Aventine, but it follow very closely Virgil's description of the scene: "Now first look at this rocky overhanging cliff, how the masses are scattered afar, how the mountain-dwelling stands desolate, and the crags have toppled down in might ruin! Here was once a cave, receding to unfathomed depth, never visited by the sun's rays, where dwelt the awful shape of half-human Cacus; and ever the ground reeked with fresh blood." Then follows the story of the theft of the cattle, its detection by Hercules, and his attack on the giant, who had taken refuge in his cave. . . . Virgil then describes how Hercules throttles the giant, and finally, "the shapeless carcass is dragged forth by the feet." Except for the fact that he shows Cacus as completely human in form, Poussin follows this description with great exactness. . . . The victory of Hercules over Cacus had been for centuries a regular symbol of the destruction of the forces of evil, and that is no doubt its principal significance for Poussin. By using Virgil's text and locating the scene in the Aventine, Poussin is linking the story with the early history of Rome and so taking up again the theme of early Roman legends and history which had had treated in the 1630's, for, as Ovid tells us, the Ara Maxima was set up by Potitius on the site of the hero's victory over Cacus."
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| Nicolas Poussin Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice ca. 1650 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Bought by Branjon for Louis XIV in 1685.
"It is in his landscapes that Poussin gives most evident form to his doctrine of the Modes. The Ashes of Phocion can properly be called Dorian. The story which it enshrines is grave and severe, and the treatment corresponds exactly to these categories. The same can be said of the pair to it, which shows Phocion's body being carried out of Athens after his execution. The colors are less sombre, but the atmosphere is as severe and the structure as rigid as in the other painting. The Pyramus and Thisbe [directly below] is in a different Mode, perhaps Lydian; it is tragic, rather than heroic, and the mood is of greater violence. A softer Mode, perhaps the Hypolydian, is used in the Orpheus and Eurydice [above], one of Poussin's calmest and most harmonious landscapes, which sets forth in visible terms the sweetness of Orpheus' music."
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| Nicolas Poussin Landscape with Pyramus and Thisbe ca. 1651 oil on canvas Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt |
HISTORY: Painted for Cassiano dal Pozzo in or shortly before 1651. Sir William Morice, Werrington, Devonshire, by 1750; engraved by Vivares and Chatelin while in his possession; by inheritance to his cousin, Humphrey Morice (seen at his villa at Chiswick by Horace Walpole in 1781). Bought with the whole of the Morice collection by Lord Ashburnham in 1786; Ashburnham sale, Christie, London, 1850. With Max Rothschild, London, in 1923; with Asti, Paris, in 1926. Bought by the Museum in Frankfurt from J. Böhler in 1931.
"In the . . . Pyramus and Thisbe the mood is of violence, and the theme is certainly the overwhelming force of nature and man's impotence in the fact of it. . . . This fact is brought out in a letter which Poussin wrote about it to his friend [Jacques] Stella: "I have tried to represent a land storm, imitating as well as I could the effect of a violent wind, of air filled with darkness, with rain, with lightnings and with thunderbolts which fall here and there, not without producing disorder. All the figures to be seen play their part in relation to the weather: some flee through the dust, and go with the wind which carries them along; others, in contrary fashion, go against the wind and walk with difficulty, putting their hands before their eyes. On one side a shepherd runs away and leaves his flock, seeing a lion, which, having already thrown down some oxherds, is attacking others, some of whom run away while others prick on their cattle and try to make good their escape. In this confusion the dust rises in whirlwinds. A dog some way off barks, with his coat bristling, but without daring to come nearer. In the front of the picture we see Pyramus, stretched out dead on the ground and beside him Thisbe, given over to her grief."
"The important fact in this description is that Poussin only mentions the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in the last sentence. His first intention, as he says, has been to paint a storm and its effects on man, and the story of the lovers only comes in as a sort of focusing point. It was the storm that dictated the Mode in which the picture had to be painted. It even seems probable that in composing these landscapes Poussin sometimes worked out the composition without bringing in the figures till the last moment."
HISTORY: Painted for Jacques Stella in 1657; mentioned in the inventory of his niece, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella as having been sold out of the family. Philippe, Duke of Orleans, by 1727. Sold in 1790 with the Italian and French pictures of the Orleans collection to Walkuers; sold by him the same year to Laborde de Méréville; bought 1798 by Bryan; list of pictures exhibited for sale by Bryan in London, 1798. John Willett Willett; sold Coxe, London, 1813, presumably bought in; Willett sale, Christie, London, 1819, bought Pinney. Chevalier Sebastian Erard collection, Paris, in 1824; sold Henry, Paris 1832, bought in; sold Christie, London, 1833; Montcalm sale, Christie, London, 1849 (as from the Orleans, Willett and Erard collections); Adrian Hope sale, Christie, London, 1894 (as from the Orleans, Willett and Erard collections), bought Sir A. Hayter. Anonymous sale, Christie, London, 1923 (as from the Orleans, Willett, Erard and Hope collections), bought Durlacher; bought from Durlacher by Samuel Sachs and presented to the Fogg Art Museum by Mrs. Sachs in 1942.
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| Nicolas Poussin The Birth of Bacchus 1657 oil on canvas Harvard Art Museums |
HISTORY: Painted for Jacques Stella in 1657; mentioned in the inventory of his niece, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella as having been sold out of the family. Philippe, Duke of Orleans, by 1727. Sold in 1790 with the Italian and French pictures of the Orleans collection to Walkuers; sold by him the same year to Laborde de Méréville; bought 1798 by Bryan; list of pictures exhibited for sale by Bryan in London, 1798. John Willett Willett; sold Coxe, London, 1813, presumably bought in; Willett sale, Christie, London, 1819, bought Pinney. Chevalier Sebastian Erard collection, Paris, in 1824; sold Henry, Paris 1832, bought in; sold Christie, London, 1833; Montcalm sale, Christie, London, 1849 (as from the Orleans, Willett and Erard collections); Adrian Hope sale, Christie, London, 1894 (as from the Orleans, Willett and Erard collections), bought Sir A. Hayter. Anonymous sale, Christie, London, 1923 (as from the Orleans, Willett, Erard and Hope collections), bought Durlacher; bought from Durlacher by Samuel Sachs and presented to the Fogg Art Museum by Mrs. Sachs in 1942.
"Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and Semele who, before the birth of the child, was tricked by the jealous Juno into her own destruction. On Juno's advice she made the god promise her anything that she wished, whereupon she asked that she might see Jupiter in his full glory. Jupiter was compelled to grant the request, though he knew the fatal consequences of doing so. He appeared in his majesty, and the unhappy Semele was consumed to ashes by the fire of his presence. Jupiter, however, seized the unborn child and sewed it into his own thigh, from which it was born in due course. The infant Bacchus was then carried by Mercury to the nymphs, who tended him. The painting shows the moment when Bacchus is handed over to the nymphs by Mercury, who flies down from heaven. In the sky Jupiter is seen receiving a cup of nectar from Hebe."
HISTORY: Given to Cardinal Camillo Massimi by Poussin in 1664, because the artist realized that he could no longer work and would therefore not be able to finish it; apparently sold with [Cardinal Massimi's] palace to Cardinal Nerli, since a picture by Poussin described as "un Apollo, che perseguita Dafne" appears in Rossi's Descrizione di Roma moderna of 1697, written when the palace belonged to the Cardinal. The picture is not mentioned in the edition of 1727, by which time the palace had been bought by Cardinal Alessandro Albani, but it reappears in Martinelli's Roma ricerata of 1750 and and in Roisecco's Roma ampliata e rinnovata of 1762; it is still mentioned in Melchiorri's Guida metodica di Roma of 1840, but the author was probably copying earlier guides without checking, since the picture was apparently by that time in France. Erard sale, Henry, Paris, 1832; Marquis de Gouvello; bought by the Louvre in 1869.
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| Nicolas Poussin Apollo and Daphne ca. 1664 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
HISTORY: Given to Cardinal Camillo Massimi by Poussin in 1664, because the artist realized that he could no longer work and would therefore not be able to finish it; apparently sold with [Cardinal Massimi's] palace to Cardinal Nerli, since a picture by Poussin described as "un Apollo, che perseguita Dafne" appears in Rossi's Descrizione di Roma moderna of 1697, written when the palace belonged to the Cardinal. The picture is not mentioned in the edition of 1727, by which time the palace had been bought by Cardinal Alessandro Albani, but it reappears in Martinelli's Roma ricerata of 1750 and and in Roisecco's Roma ampliata e rinnovata of 1762; it is still mentioned in Melchiorri's Guida metodica di Roma of 1840, but the author was probably copying earlier guides without checking, since the picture was apparently by that time in France. Erard sale, Henry, Paris, 1832; Marquis de Gouvello; bought by the Louvre in 1869.
"The Apollo and Daphne is [Poussin's] swan song in mythology – literally, because he gave it unfinished to Cardinal Massimi within a year of his death. The picture is in every respect different from the paintings and drawings which Poussin had made around the story in his early years, and stands out even more among his late works by its stillness and remoteness, by the strange tensions between the figures, and by the intensely poetical atmosphere of the whole composition. . . . Poussin has followed Ovid closely in many details. According to his version, Apollo, having just slain the serpent Python with his arrows, meets Cupid, who is polishing his bow, and mocks him for daring to use such a weapon, which, he asserts, is not for children but only for gods like himself to slay creatures like Python. Apollo flies off, but Cupid follows and shoots at him one of his sharp golden arrows, thereby inflaming him with love for Daphne, while at the same time he shoots at her a blunt, lead-tipped arrow, which prevents her from ever returning his love. Daphne then takes to the woods and becomes a huntress like Diana, and when her father, the river Peneus, proposes that she marry one of her many suitors, she begs him to allow her to remain a virgin. The story ends with the pursuit of Daphne by Apollo, her appeal to Peneus to save her, and her transformation into a laurel, the theme most usually illustrated in painting."
"From this story Poussin selects the stage when Apollo has already been struck by the golden arrow and Cupid is about to shoot the leaden arrow at Daphne, that is to say, a moment which emphasizes the opposing effects of the two arrows on the victims. . . . Like so many of the late works, the Apollo and Daphne is divided sharply into two parts, but in this case the opposition of these two parts is also a direct expression of the allegorical theme. On the left are all the symbols of life and fertility. . . . On the right is sterility and death. . . . The two opposed groups are bound together by the most complex network of tensions ever used by Poussin. Apollo and Melia gaze at Daphne, who keeps her eyes shut as if to avoid the god's look, while Peneus gazes blindly at the spectator and points with one hand to the stream below him; Cupid looks and shoots in the direction of Apollo's gaze, while the two nymphs standing beside Peneus gaze across at the group on the left; the two nymphs seated at the feet of Apollo turn to look up at him; and one of those at the feet of the river god, though she looks up at him, points with one hand across the compositions at the two naiads near Apollo"
HISTORY: Perhaps Charles Jarvis sale, London, 1739. W. Coningham sale, Christie, London, 1849. Sir Charles Eastlake; presented by him to the Scottish National Gallery in 1862-63.
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| Nicolas Poussin The Feast of the Gods (close copy after the painting of 1514 by Giovanni Bellini and Titian) ca. 1635 oil on canvas Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
"The attribution of the Edinburgh picture to Poussin is rejected by [Denis] Mahon, [Georg] Kauffmann and [Doris] Wild, but in spite of their views I feel no doubt about its authenticity. It should, however, in my opinion, be placed not in the 1620's, when, according to [Giovanni Battista] Bellori, Poussin began to study the Aldobrandini Bacchanals, since the handling is not like that of the artist at that period, but about 1635."
– Anthony Blunt, Nicolas Poussin, (Phaidon Press, 1958) and The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: Critical Catalogue (Phaidon Press, 1966)