Nicolas Poussin : friendship and the love of painting

Bibliographic Information

Nicolas Poussin : friendship and the love of painting

Elizabeth Cropper and Charles Dempsey

Princeton University Press, [2000], c1996

  • : pbk

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Bibliography: p. [347]-362

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

By investigating the important cultural figures who were close to the painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), Elizabeth Cropper and Charles Dempsey allow the reader to enter not only the Rome where he lived but also the Rome of antiquity, which he admired and tried to reconstruct. The authors argue that Poussin's works were structured by his friendships, as well as by his study of ancient history and early Christian archaeology, his exploration of the poetry and mystery of ancient places, and his conception of his paintings as gifts rather than commercial objects. By looking into this rich background, they also show how Poussin introduced into his theory and practice of painting a new concept of the inherent expressiveness of form that was quite different from the then prevailing conventions for depicting the passions and affections. The first two chapters treat Vincenzo Giustiniani, the most sophisticated patron and art collector of his day, whose purpose and rationale for collecting ancient sculpture deeply influenced Poussin and the Flemish sculptor Francois Duquesnoy. Among other topics, the succeeding sections take up Poussin's deep readings of Montaigne and his friendships with the poet Giovanni Battista Marino, with artists such as Pietro Testa and Matteo Zaccolini, and with patrons and true friends, among them Cassiano dal Pozzo and Paul Frart de Chantelou, for whom Poussin painted a special self-portrait, which the artist said stood for "The Love of Painting and Friendship."

Table of Contents

List of IllustrationsPrefaceIntroduction3IVincenzo GiustinianiCh. 1The Greek Style, the Exquisite Taste, and the Prehistory of Neoclassicism23Ch. 2Vincenzo Giustiniani's Galleria: A Taste for Style and an Inclination to Pleasure64IICassiano Dal PozzoCh. 3Poussin's Sacrament of Confirmation, the Scholarship of Roma sotterranea, and Cassiano dal Pozzo's Museo Cartaceo109Ch. 4On the Experience of Light and Color: Poussin, Padre Zaccolini, Cassiano dal Pozzo, and the Legacy of Leonardo145IIIMontaigneCh. 5Painting and Possession: Poussin's Self-Portrait for Chantelou and the Essais of Montaigne177Ch. 6Mavors armipotens: The Poetics of Self-Representation in Poussin's Mars and Venus216IVThe PoetsCh. 7Marino's La Strage degli Innocenti, Poussin, Rubens, and Guido Reni253Ch. 8Death in Arcadia279Notes313Bibliography347Index363

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