#nicolaspoussin

Institution of the Eucharist, 1640, Nicolas Poussin

The Companions of Rinaldo, Nicolas Poussin, ca. 1633, European Paintings

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1977 Size: 46 1/2 x 40 1/4 in. (118.1 x 102.2 cm) Medium: Oil on canvas

The Death of Germanicus, Nicolas Poussin, 1627, Minneapolis Institute of Art: Paintings

Historical. Death of Germanicus Caesar; he is lying on his death-bed with his wife Agrippina grieving at his bedside. The young Roman general Germanicus has just been poisoned by his jealous adoptive father, the emperor Tiberius. On his deathbed, Germanicus asks his friends to avenge his murder and his wife to endure her sorrow bravely. A key work in Western painting, this tragic picture presents a moral lesson in stoic heroism, notably in the restraint and dignity of the mourning soldiers. This work—Poussin’s first major history painting—became the model for countless deathbed scenes for the next two centuries. Many powerful human themes figure here: death, suffering, injustice, grief, loyalty, revenge. Poussin drew on Roman antiquity for the form as well as the subject. The composition, with figures crowded together near the front, is based on Roman sarcophagus reliefs. Poussin spent most of his life in Rome, where he developed a classical style that strongly influenced both French and Italian art. This painting was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Barberini. As prominent patrons of the arts, the wealthy Barberini family helped shape the artistic landscape of the time. The Death of Germanicus remained with descendants of the Barberini family until 1958, when Mia purchased it. Size: 58 1/4 x 78 in. (147.96 x 198.12 cm) (canvas) Medium: Oil on canvas

Landscape with Saint John on Patmos, Nicolas Poussin, 1640, Art Institute of Chicago: European Painting and Sculpture

Although French by birth and training, Nicolas Poussin spent most of his career in Rome, immersed in the study of ancient art, where he painted classically inspired works for an educated elite. His art has long been considered the embodiment of the ideals of seventeenth-century classicism. In this painting, Saint John, one of the four Evangelists who wrote the Gospels of the New Testament, reclines beside his attribute, the eagle. He is here depicted as a powerful old man, presumably after retiring to the Greek island of Patmos to write his gospel and the book of Revelation at the end of his life. To suggest the vanished glory of the ancient world, Poussin carefully constructed an idealized setting for the saint, complete with an obelisk, a temple, and column fragments. Man-made and natural forms were adjusted according to principles of geometry and logic to convey the measured order of the scene. Even the profile view of Saint John is in harmony with the classical landscape. This painting may have been part of a projected series on the four Evangelists—in addition to this work, Poussin completed a companion, Landscape with Saint Matthew (1640; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin). A. A. Munger Collection Size: 100.3 × 136.4 cm (39 1/2 × 53 5/8 in.) Medium: Oil on canvas

St. John Baptising the People, 1636, Nicolas Poussin

Midas and Bacchus, 1630, Nicolas Poussin

A Roman Road, 1648, Nicolas Poussin