Poussin and Nature
dal 10/2/2008 al 10/5/2008
Segnalato da
10/2/2008
Poussin and Nature
Metropolitan Museum of Art - MET, New York
Arcadian Visions. The exhibition brings together about 40 paintings, ranging from his early, lyrical, Venetian-inspired pastorals to his grandly structured and austere works in which the artist meditated upon Nature, its transformations and its renewals. There are also an equal number of drawings, the most luminous of which were done en plein air. In these landscapes, nature is viewed "through the glass of time" and endowed with a poetic quality.
“I would like… to join the curves of the women to the shoulders of the hills…Like
Poussin, I would like to put reason in the grass and tears in the sky.”
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
Best known as the creator of the classical tradition in French painting, Nicolas
Poussin (1594-1665) was also one of the supreme masters of landscape painting.
In his beautiful landscape paintings, nature is viewed "through the glass of time"
and is endowed with a poetic quality that has been admired by painters as varied
in style as Corot, Constable, Turner, Cézanne, Matisse, and Balthus. This
landmark exhibition—the first to examine Poussin’s response to nature and
landscape—brings together about 40 paintings, ranging from his early, lyrical,
Venetian-inspired pastorals to grandly structured and austere works in which the
artist meditated upon Nature, its transformations, and its renewals. Also on view
are an equal number of drawings, the most luminous of which were done en plein
air.
The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation and
The Isaacson-Draper Foundation.
It was organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the
Museo de Bellas Artes, Bilbao.
The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the
Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Exhibition Overview and Highlights
Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions will be a revelation to those who think of
Poussin primarily as the master of complex, figurative compositions and the
illustrator par excellence of ancient history, mythology, and the Bible. The
exhibition will demonstrate that he was also one of the great painters of landscape,
and that these paintings have had a profound impact on the course of European art.
Nicolas Poussin was born in the market town of Les Andelys, on the Seine, about
25 miles from Rouen, in Normandy. His family – said to have descended from
noble stock – was not well off, and little is known of his early years. He seems to
have been schooled in Latin and the classics, an experience that left an indelible
mark on all his work. As a young man, Poussin made his way to Paris, and then to
Rome, eventually establishing himself in both cities as a history painter and setting
a new standard for classical painting.
From the outset, Poussin was as concerned with landscape settings as with
narrative subjects. An ardent student of nature, he transformed the genre to suit
his elevated notion of the Grand Manner. The mere transcription of visual experience – landscape as an imitation of the world around us – did not interest
him. He did not paint topographical views, and identifiable sites in his work are
rare. In his landscapes we encounter nature reconfigured and ennobled – not as it
is in everyday life, but as we might imagine it to be. Examples of this in the
exhibition will be Landscape with John of Patmos, Landscape with Ashes of
Phocion, Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake, Landscape with Orpheus and
Eurydice, Landscape with Three Men, Landscape with a Calm, Landscape with a
Storm, Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun, and Spring: Adam and Eve and
Summer: Ruth and Boaz from the four Seasons series in the Louvre.
Poussin devoted himself to landscape from his earliest years in Rome, often making
excursions together with fellow artist Claude Lorrain to the Roman Campagna to
draw from nature. Most of the 40 drawings in the exhibition were created en plein
air and are by Poussin and his contemporaries, some anonymous. Drawings such
as Poussin’s Landscape with a Burning Fortress will demonstrate how he used the
medium in composing his great paintings.
Exhibition Credits and Catalogue
Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions is organized at the Metropolitan Museum
by Keith Christiansen, Jayne Wrightsman Curator of European Paintings, and
Pierre Rosenberg, Director Emeritus of the Musée du Louvre.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.
Education Programs
The Metropolitan Museum will offer an array of education programs in
conjunction with the exhibition. A Sunday at the Met lecture program on March 9 will feature lectures by Caroline Elam, Helen Langdon, Olivier Bonfait, and
Richard Verdi. A second Sunday at the Met on April 6 will include lectures by
David Freedberg, Denise Allen, Peter Miller, and Ann Harris. There will also be a
special lecture given by Willibald Sauerländer on April 11. A teacher workshop
led by Rika Burnham, “Arcadian Visions,” will be held on Saturday, April 12, and
regular gallery talks will accompany both this exhibition and the related drawings
and prints installation, In the Light of Poussin: The Classical Landscape Tradition.
Press preview: Monday, February 11
Metropolitan Museum
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street - New York