Rome had a tremendous impact on the seventeenth century French artist Nicolas Poussin and through him had a tremendous effect on French art in the subsequent centuries. Poussin was heavily influenced by the classical ideals of Italian art and thrived on the lifestyle in Rome that fostered this mentality. Poussin spent over half of his life, and almost his entire productive artistic career in Rome. Despite the fact that he was a practicing artist before his time in Rome, it is said that his artistic career truly began with his arrival in the Eternal City. He served many Roman patrons but was also extremely popular with French patrons. But, he not only influenced French patrons but he also heavily impacted the future of French art. He influenced numerous French artists:

For Ingres, for instance, Poussin was a model of classical composition, surpassed only by Raphael and the Antique; Degas saw in him "purity of drawing, breadth of modeling, and grandeur of composition"; Cézanne aimed at revivifying Poussin's formal perfection by a renewed contact with nature; and the early Cubists saw in him the near-abstract qualities which they themselves sought. ¹

Poussin also significantly influenced the institution of French art. The teachings of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, established in 1648 were founded on the ideals of Poussin.² His conception of the importance of drawing as the fundamental intellectual basis of painting was considered gospel for the Academy. His artistic priorities about the supremacy of history painting were considered the official stance on artistic value. And despite the fact that during the early portions of the eighteenth century his values were followed more in word than in practice, his influence is seen again in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in artists like David and Ingres. In this paper I will demonstrate that Rome had a distinct and profound influence on the art of Poussin and through him on the evolution of French art.

Nicolas Poussin was born near Les Andelys in Normandy in 1594. His family was of peasant farmer class, although his father had been a soldier. Despite his humble origins his parents were able to give him an education in Latin and letters. He discovered at an early age that he had a natural talent for drawing. At about the age of seventeen he met an artist by the name of Quentin Varin who had traveled to his hometown to paint altarpieces. Varin recognized Poussin's talent and encouraged him to become a painter. Poussin, at the age of eighteen ran away to Paris. In Paris, he is thought to have worked for some time with Varin, a Flemish painter, before working with a Flemish portraitist, Ferdinant Elle. Poussin worked with and befriended a number of Flemish painters while in Paris. He also studied while in Paris, but his education there did not inspire him greatly. He is said to have had little regard for his French teachers. He claimed that his most important and influential encounter while in Paris was with a courtier of Marie de Médicis by the name of Courtois.³ Courtois is said to have given Poussin access to the royal art collections and to the works of Raphael and other Italian artists contained therein. Poussin is said to have been immediately captivated. The result of his fascination with this Italianate style and his inspiration can be found in his early work. It is at this time that Poussin begins to gain a passion for classicism. He tried twice to journey to Rome to further pursue this fascination in the next decade, but had to turn back each time before he reached his destination. Meanwhile he was commissioned for minor works and decorative pieces in France while continuing to study in Paris.

By 1622, while still in Paris, he had begun to make a name for himself. Many had recognized his talents and he had a number of patrons and supporters. One important supporter was the Italian Giovanni Battista Marino. He was also commissioned by the archbishop of Notre-Dame de Paris to paint a version of Death of the Virgin.⁴ This is thought to be his last painting before he left for Italy in late 1623 or early 1634.

Upon his arrival in Italy he first went to Venice and stayed with his friend and patron Marino. By March, 1634 he is listed as living in Rome with another French artist, Simon Vouet. Poussin's Italian patron, Marino died soon after his arrival in Italy, but fortunately for Poussin, through Marino's connections, he was recommended to the Cardinal Francesco Barbarini. After doing some work for Barbarini, the Cardinal left Rome and again Poussin was without a patron in Italy. Poussin struggled as a starving artist until Barbarini's return in 1626. Unfortunately Poussin soon fell ill. He was nursed back to health by a French family and eventually married their daughter. With the new stability of a family life and a steady patron, Poussin was finally able to dedicate himself to his original mission in Rome: to learn in the free academy of the city. Rome was the ideal place for a young artist. It provided a multitude of stylistic choices and examples. It existed in layers from antiquity to the glory of the High Renaissance to the budding appearance of the new style, Baroque. As a student of Rome, Poussin was able to explore artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Caravaggio and Bernini. He was able to glean what he could from them and synthesize his own unique style with their masterpieces as guides. Poussin had access to not only the splendors of Roman architecture and art, but also to its libraries of drawings and museums. Poussin made innumerable sketches of Roman ruins and monuments. He also made use of literary writings of antiquity to glean inspiration. It was in Rome that he finally seemed to flourish.

Poussin is said to have learned spatial construction and organization from ancient works.⁵ He is also said to have not copied entire works, but to have rather chosen specific figures or elements for their classic nature and studied them thoroughly. Poussin derived much inspiration and compositional ideology from his analysis of the art of Rome. He agreed strongly with the idea of the perfection of classical Antiquity. For him it was an ideal that was not just for his art but also for his life. Poussin admired the perfection of the ancient artists, and like many other High Renaissance artists, strove to equal the importance of that perfection.

But Poussin's artistic style did not only derive from Italy. He retained some stylistic elements from his French heritage. His exposure to Italian art helped to solidify some of the classical ideals that he discovered in his youth. It also helped him acquire a background in incorporating those ideals into art. But it is in the basic composition that we see his French heritage. Like many French painters his pictures lack a finite line of recession into the canvas. Instead there is attention to the pattern of figures and forms on the planar surface. The space itself, unlike in Italian Renaissance works such as da Vinci's Last Supper, has no independent power. Space is portrayed with the use of overlapping and atmospheric perspective rather than the strict use of one-point linear perspective. In Poussin's work the vanishing point is without consequence.⁷ The eye is lead across the picture plane rather than into it. The forms in the painting work together on the surface as an undulation of light and shadow that contributes to this movement of the eye. The scenes of his paintings are arbitrarily cut out of a larger context rather than composed with a distinctive compositionally framed effect.

Poussin continued his life in Rome painting for both Italian and French patrons. He moved back and forth between Rome and Paris, but remained primarily in Rome. He was the painter for the King of France and did many commissioned works for him. He continued to be inspired by the surroundings and pervading antiquity of Rome. In 1652 his work slowed down due to ill health, but in 1655 he was once again named First Painter to the King of France.⁸ By 1665 Poussin's wife had died and he was paralyzed. He died and was buried in Rome on November 19, 1665.

One of Poussin's most famous works, and an excellent example of his love for classical antiquity is his The Rape of the Sabine Women (fig.1).⁹ One can recognize this subject from the works of Livy and Plutarch with which Poussin was surely familiar. This image depicts a classic moment from Roman history. Upon the founding of Rome by Romulus, it was discovered that there were not enough women in the Roman population. Romulus, in the interest of preserving his city invited the people of a neighboring population, the Sabines, to a celebration within the walls of Rome. Upon their arrival the Roman men captured the Sabine women. After much fighting, the Sabines were defeated and retreated from Rome, leaving their women behind. The women were then made wives of the Roman men, and according the Livy it was soon realized by all that the violent event was in the best interest for the future of Rome.

In this image we see the event at the moment of highest passion: the capture of the women. The dramatic poses and rapid movement from highlight to shadow emphasize the passion of these actions. At the time this painting was done, this subject was thought to be a heroic one for Rome. Romulus the stoic and almost religiously solemn figure at the upper left is the hero. His patriotic actions and resolute attitude focus on the good of Rome regardless of the barbaric acts necessary to attain that good. These acts were forgiven as they determined the future of the nation and the city of which the Romans were so proud.¹⁰

As can be seen, the subject and the setting, a grand Italianate city, are classically Roman. But the style in which the painting is composed diverges from the Italian tradition. As mentioned above, Poussin like many French painters of his time did not focus on the depth of the image, but rather on the planar surface of the image. It can be seen that recession into space is unimportant in this image. One does not get the feeling of being drawn into the image because there is no distinct recession line. The figures are firmly grounded on the surface of the image. The activity produced by strong vertical, diagonal and horizontal lines in the figures and structures, lead the eye around the surface of the canvas. A strong diagonal line leads from the bearded man in the lower right corner with his upward gaze, through the tip of the blade of his attacker, directly towards the hero, Romulus. This strong diagonal is slightly counterbalance by a diagonal in the opposite direction produced by the flailing arms of the captured women.

The Rape of the Sabine Women is an excellent example of Poussin's combination of his love of classical Roman antiquity and his French stylistic sensibility. Another work that exemplifies Poussin's interest in classical antiquity is Landscape with the Funeral of Phocion (fig.2), from 1648. Despite the fact that Poussin officially looked down upon landscape painting as a lower form of art than history painting, he was actually a very successful and quite influential landscape painter. But unlike his Dutch and Flemish counterparts in the North, his landscapes were heroic rather than rustic. He often portrayed events from classical tales in a landscape setting, so his works were not strictly landscapes. His settings were highly Italianate, not at all reminiscent of the landscapes from his native France.

In Landscape with the Funeral of Phocion we see another event from the writings of Plutarch. In this story Phocion, an Athenian general, was unjustly killed by his own countrymen. He was then given a public funeral and memorialized by the state. The general was originally forbidden to be buried on Athenian soil, but is later brought back.¹¹ In the foreground we see two soldiers taking the body of the hero away from his homeland. The figures are dwarfed and weighted down by the expansive landscape surrounding them. They seem completely isolated from their surroundings, as if to indicate the isolation of the hero from his country.

In this image we see a distinct Italianate style as well. It resembles the works of Italian landscape painters at the time like Annibale Carracci. The solid structures, carefully arranged trees and distant forms are all indications of this style. Unlike in Poussin's figurative history paintings, in this painting we can see more of an influence of Italian spatial representation with a slightly more distinct vanishing point.

It can be seen that Poussin's art was heavily influenced by his time spent in Rome. His exposure to the Roman culture and environment strengthened his knowledge and appreciation of classical antiquity. This influence can be seen in his work. This influence can also be seen in the work of subsequent French artists. As mentioned at the beginning, Poussin had a profound effect on the institution of art in France as well as on individual artists. His ideals concerning appropriate subject matter, painting style, and artistic inspiration heavily influenced the newly founded Royal Academy. This Academy in return influenced most popular art in subsequent centuries. Its system of rank and order controlled the primary artistic community. Following Poussin's lead history painting was the most important form of art. It required the knowledge of perspective, anatomy, still life, landscape and all other aspects of art. Officially, the most well respected painters were history painters. Unfortunately during the early and mid eighteenth century, as artists like Oudry, Watteau, and Vernet dominated, Academy artists did not follow Poussin's philosophies in practice. But with the arrival of the neoclassical painters like David and Ingres in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Poussin's classical ideals were revived and continued to influence artists. As was mentioned at the beginning even the Impressionists and Cubists appreciated his work for its perfection and near-abstractness, respectively.

Just as Rome had a tremendous influence on the political history of France with Charlemagne and Napoleon, so it had an enormous influence on the artistic history of France through artists like Poussin. Poussin's love of the city, and France's love of Poussin produced a strong tie that continued into the twentieth century.

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Friedlaender, Walter. Nicolas Poussin: A New Approach. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1966?.

Mérot, Alain. Nicolas Poussin. New York: Abbeville Press, 1990.

Oberhuber, Konrad. Poussin: The Early Years In Rome: The Origins of French Classicism. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1988.

Tansey, Richard G. and Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.