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less, ill, without means, and reduced to doing hacli antiquity. Among these to mention only dated works

work. The poor artist then met a countryman, the are: "The Rape of the Sabines", and "The Plague of

coolc Dughet, who took pity on him, sheltered and the Philistines" (1630, Louvre); "The Testament of

cured him, and whose daughter he married (1629). Eudamidas" (Copenhagen); "Hebrews Gathering

At the time of his arrival at Rome the school was Manna" (1639); "Moses Rescued from the Waters

divided into two parties, that of the mannerists who (1647); "Eliezer and Rebecca" (164S); "The Judg-

followed Guido, and that of the brutal naturalists who followed Caravaggio, both in Poussin's opinion quackery, equally dis- honest and remote from reality. He detested the affected airs of the fashionable painters, their sentimentality, their insipidity, their ecstasy. Nor was he less hard on the affectation of the "naturalists and their partiality for ugliness and vulgarity ". He called Caravaggio's art "paint- ing for lackeys", and added: "This man is come to destroy painting". Both schools sought to execute more beautifully or more basely than nature ; Art was endangered for lack of rule, con- science, and discipline. It was time to escape from caprice and anarchy, from the despotism of tastes and temperaments. And this was what Poussin sought to achieve by his doctrine of "imitation". To imitate the an- tique was to approach nature, to learn conformity with reality, to recover life in its most lasting, noble, and human forms. Such at least was the doctrine and faith which he practised unceasingly in his works and letters. For this he became an archae- ologist, a numismatist, a scholar. He used scientific methods, measuring statues, consulting bas-reliefs, studying painted vases, sar- cophagi, and mo- saics. Every point was based on an au- thentic document. In this he was doubt- less influenced by a certain narrowness and misunderstand- ing of the claims of realism. To a cer- tain extent his art is for the initiated, the taste for it re- quires culture. More, this pure ideal im- plies a singular an- achronism. Poussin presents the strange case of a man isolated in the past and who

(After a painting by himaelQ

ment of Solomon" (1649); "The Blind Men of Jericho" (1650); "The Adulteress" (1653); all these last-named pictures are at the Louvre. To these must be added the important double series of pictures known as the "Seven Sacraments". The first, painted (1644-8) for Cavaliere del Pozzo, is now at the Bridge- water Gallery, London. The second is a very different varia- tion of the former and was painted for M. de Chantelou, his cor- respondent and active protector. It is now in the collection of the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle. This historical portion of his work seems to have been most in favour with his contem- poraries. It immediately became classic and it is certainly filled with the highest beauty. Despite their high and strong qualities, however, these works no longer at- tract us, for we often find therein an intellectual affront, a some- thing too literary or too rationalistic which seems to us foreign to the genius ofpainting. Butthat this was relished by the French of the seventeenth century is shown by their commentaries on these works. The

description of (In

Eliezer" and the "Manna", fills forty quarto pages in F^li- bien. Apart from t hese historical scenes which "re- late" and "prove" there is a purely lyric side. In it are evident the wonder- ful skill of the de- signer and the poet, detached from any attempt at anecdote or "illustration". Such were the " Bac- chanalia", the "Tri- umiih of Flora", the "Ciiildhooil of Jupi- ter", wiiich do little more than repeat the theme of the joy and beauty of living. Here Poussin's ge- nius freed of all re-

N. rousain— Tlio U

never descended in history lower than the Antonines. straint can only be compared to that of great musicians

By his turn of mind this man of austere virtue was such as Rameau or Gluck. Properly speaking it is the

scarcely Christian. He rarely painted scenes from the genius of rhythm. This is his true sphere, as original as

Gospel. His Christ is certainly one of his weakest types, that of any master, and the inexhaustible source of his

Let me dare to say it : as an artist Poussin thinks some- emotion and poetry. In a sense his work may be con

what like a Leconte de Lisle or like the Renan of the "Pri^resur I'Acropole". Pous.sin had no desire to see the modern world. He left but a single portrait, his own. He is wholly expressed in Bernini's words:

sidered as a ballet. This was his idea in his famous letter on the modes of the ancients, who distinguished as many as seven, the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Hy- polydian etc. " I de-sire", he added, "before another

"Veramente quest' uomo e stato grande istoriatore e year to compose a picture in the Phrygian manner",

grande favoleggiatore". He was a great historian, a This phrase would have aroused less amusement if

great teller of fables, an epic poet, in a word the fore- Whistler's works, with his "symphonies", "harmo-

most of his time and one of the foremost of all time, nies", "nocturns", and "sonatas", had been known.

His works ;ire very numerous. The fir.st group con- But this music of painting which Whistler made chiefly

tains subjects borrowed from sacred and profane a matter of colour seemed to Poussin a question of