In the right corner are Crocus and Smilax. For his impatience, Crocus was
turned into the À ower that bears his name, while she was transformed into a
yew tree. Behind them is the wounded Adonis with a spear. As he pulls back
his cloak, he reveals the wound in his thigh, bleeding anemones. Also present
is Hyacinthus, who was accidentally struck in the head and killed by a discus
thrown by his lover, Apollo. Hyacinths fall from his head. Apollo is in his
Sun chariot above, and there is a thematic triangulation here. While Apollo
mourns Hyacinth, he is observed by Clytie
below; in her unrequited love for Apollo, she
turned her head always toward him until she
became a sunÀ ower that always turns toward
the Sun. This scene is completely arti¿ cial;
in lesser hands, the painting could be quite
dull, but in Poussin’s hands, it is poetry cast
as a dance. Even his color, inÀ uenced by
Titian, is poetic.
Our next example is the Massacre of the
Innocents (1632–1635), painted for the
Marchese Giustiniani, who had been a patron
of Caravaggio. The Massacre has some echoes of Caravaggio but more
of Guido Reni; in Poussin’s painting, we see an even greater reduction of
¿ gures than in Guido’s Massacre, a more rigorous editing.
In 1640, Poussin yielded to pressure from King Louis XIII of France and
Cardinal Richelieu to return to his native country to paint decorations in the
Palace of the Louvre. For Poussin, both the type of painting and the intrigues
of other court artists were intolerable. After 18 months, he returned to
Rome, ostensibly to bring his wife to Paris but with no intent of ever going
north again.
Our next example is Eliezar and Rebecca at the Well (1648). The story
is from Genesis 24. Seeking a bride for his son Isaac, Abraham sends his
servant Eliezar to look for a suitable woman among his own kinsmen in
Mesopotamia. Reaching Chaldea, Eliezar selected the ¿ rst woman who
offered him and his camels water at the well. This hospitality was extended
by Rebecca, who proved to be a daughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor.
According to an
early biographer,
Claude was trained
as a pastry chef, but
by about age 13, he
was in Italy working
as a general studio
assistant for painters.