Word: poussins
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...Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was the greatest French artist of the 17th century, the founder of his country's classical school. With him, French painting shook off its provinciality and became a European affair, mirroring the power of its grand siecle, the age of Louis XIV. After Poussin, Rome could no longer condescend to Paris. But without Rome there would have been no Poussin: Rome formed and trained him, gave him his conception of professional life, his myths, his essential subjects, his sensuality and measure -- in short, his pictorial ethos...
...first went there in 1624 and stayed 16 years. What did he see? What did he do? Amazingly enough, no U.S. museum until now has tried to tell us: there has never been a Poussin retrospective in this country, even though some of his greatest works are in American collections. But now the gap has been filled. Through Nov. 27, "Poussin: the Early Years in Rome," containing 36 paintings and 58 drawings by the master, is on view at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. The show comes with a detailed, argumentative and altogether excellent catalog...
...Frenchman enter it? A writer could read Vergil without leaving Paris, but a painter had to go to Rome. There, ancient sculpture and architecture abounded; from them, antiquity could be reimagined. It was the strength of the reimagining, not just its archaeological correctness, that counted. Poussin's main regular job during his Roman years was drawing records of ancient sculpture for a rich antiquary and scholar named Cassiano dal Pozzo. This gave him excellent access to collections, and the time to develop the repertoire of figures that would fill his work in years to come. Rome was not just...
...style of Gericault nearly 200 years later) but also his little son, whose blue cloak matches the general's; the women suffer, but the boy learns, remembers and will act. The more Germanicus unfolds, the more one realizes why Bernini, on his visit to Louis XIV in Paris, declared Poussin to be the only French artist who really mattered: un grande favoleggiatore, "a great storyteller...
Later in life Poussin would complain of the pressure of commissions. "Monsieur, these are not things that can be done at the crack of a whip," he wrote to his friend and patron Chantelou in 1645, "like your Parisian painters who make a sport of turning out a picture in twenty-four hours." But in his Roman youth, he could and did turn them out, and it would be idle to pretend that all early Poussin is on the same level. Some paintings are much less "finished" than others. A few are hackwork (such as Hannibal Crossing the Alps, done...