Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/595

 In Fkance. 565 Poussin, with full-length figures : the Last Supper, Francis Xavier in India, and the Virgin appearing to S. John. His only painting of this size out of France is the Martyr- dom of S. Erasmus, the pendent, in S. Peter's at Rome, to the Martyrdom of S. Processo, by his friend Valentin. Among his religious compositions are the charming group of Rebecca at the Well, when Eliezer recognizes her among her companions, and offers her the ring ; Moses exposed on the Nile by his mother and sister ; Moses saved from the Water by the daughter of Pharaoh; the Manna in the Desert, a scene admirable in the grandeur of the whole, and the interest of the details; and the Judgment of Solomon. We must also class amongst the Old Testament subjects the four celebrated pendents named Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, far better known by the names of their subjects. Spring is typified by Adam and Eve in Paradise, before their fall ; Summer, by Ruth gleaning in the field of Boaz ; Autumn, by the Return of the Spies from the Promised Land, bringing back the wonderful bunch of grapes, which two men can scarcely carry ; Winter, by the Deluge. There is no need of any word of explanation or praise for this picture ; it was Poussin' s last work ; he was seventy-one years of age when he painted it, and he died soon afterwards at Rome. Amongst the subjects taken from the Gospels and from the Acts of the Apostles, we must call attention to the Adoration of the Magi, the Repose in Egypt, the Blind Men of Jericho, the Woman taken in Adultery, the Death of Sapphira, and S. Paul caught up into the Seventh Heaven. But Poussin did not confine himself to biblical subjects; he also, like all the great masters, treated subjects from