Lecture 35: Poussin and Claude—The Allure of Rome
The subject was sometimes considered an Old Testament anticipation or
prototype of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, but Poussin’s emphasis is
on narrating the story in clear visual terms. The dignity of the many persons
shown and the careful characterization of their actions are impressive. Poussin
suppressed the camels, probably because their exotic picturesqueness was at
odds with his desire for sobriety and measured rhythm.The palette is striking for the intensity of colors, the unusual range from
primaries to intermediate hues, and their compositional function. The work
includes many Classical quotations, such as the woman leaning on an urn
and the Greek (rather than Roman) vertical fall of many of the robes. The
abstract forms are clear and geometric. The marble sphere atop the pillar at
the right is echoed by various urns and pitchers but also by Eliezar’s turban.The Arcadian Shepherds (Et in Arcadia Ego) (c. 1650) shows a subject we
saw in Guercino’s poetic painting in Lecture Thirty, although Poussin’s is
the most famous painting on the theme and is rendered in a more didactic or
philosophic way. Instead of the unmistakable meaning of the large skull over
the engraved words—“Even in Arcady there am I”—the shepherds parse the
letters with some dif¿ culty. One of the shepherds looks at the statuesque,
broadly draped woman as if for an explanation. The ¿ gures are even more
strictly classical than those in Eliezar and Rebecca. We sense no movement;
all are absorbed in thought; indeed, they are disturbed by thought. The color
range in this painting is more limited, and the landscape is pulled up close as
a backdrop to the ¿ gures.From a series of the four seasons painted for the duc de Richelieu, we see
Winter (The Deluge) (1660–1664). Poussin chose the biblical À ood to stand
for winter—a ¿ nal winter for most. The scene is powerful, at least within
the Classical restraint of Poussin’s world. Most originally, it is a night scene.
We see ¿ gures in the water in the foreground. One clings to a horse, another
to a piece of wood. A serpent slithers on the rocks behind. Figures are dead
or dying in a boat; others are trying to hand a child down into the boat. In
the left center is a man whose boat is upended and whose hands are raised
in prayer. The painting may have a sacramental meaning; the À ood, through
the destruction of evil and the salvation of good through water, could be a
symbol of baptism.