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POUSSIN and the POETICSof PAINTING

pictorial narrative and the legacy of tasso

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Poussin and the Poetics of Painting examines how Poussin cultivated a poetics ofpainting from the literary culture of his own time, and especially through hisresponse to the work of Torquato Tasso. Tasso’s poetic discourses were the mostimportant source for Poussin’s theory of painting. The poet’s ideas on artisticimitation, novelty, and plot structure and unity, which are exemplified in his epicLa Gerusalemme liberata, proved to be fundamental to the artist’s conception ofnarrative painting, culminating in the Israelites Gathering Manna. In the paintingsafter the Gerusalemme, Poussin does not merely illustrate Tasso’s verse, but createspictorial means to refashion the poet’s metaphors of desire. The interplay of poeticand painterly imagery also animates Poussin’s Ovidian masterpieces, the Echo andNarcissus and the Realm of Flora. Offering new interpretations of these works,this book also investigates Poussin’s larger literary culture and how this contextilluminates the artist’s response to contemporary poetic texts, especially in hismythological paintings.

Jonathan Unglaub is assistant professor of fine arts at Brandeis University. A scholarof Renaissance and Baroque art, he has contributed to The Art Bulletin and TheBurlington Magazine, and he has received fellowships from the Fulbright Commis-sion, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (at the Metropolitan Museum of Art),the Getty Humanities Center, and the Clark Art Institute.

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POUSSIN and the POETICS

of PAINTING

pictorial narrative and thelegacy of tasso

<

Jonathan UnglaubBrandeis University






cambridge university pressCambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo

Cambridge University Press40 West 20th Street, New York, ny 10011-4211, usa

www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521833677

c© Jonathan Unglaub 2006

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,

no reproduction of any part may take place withoutthe written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2006

Printed in Hong Kong by Golden Cup

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Unglaub, Jonathan.Poussin and the poetics of painting : pictorial narrative and the Legacy of

Tasso / Jonathan Unglaub.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.isbn-13: 978-0-521-83367-7 (hardback)

isbn-10: 0-521-83367-1 (hardback)1. Poussin, Nicolas, 1594?–1665 – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Narrative painting, French –17th century. 3. Ut pictura poesis (Aesthetics) 4. Tasso, Torquato, 1544–1595. Gerusalemme

liberata. 5. Tasso, Torquato, 1544–1595 – Influence. 6. Art and literature. I. Poussin, Nicolas,1594?–1665. II. Title.nd553.p8u54 2005

759.4 – dc22 2005020605

isbn-13 978-0-521-83367-7 hardbackisbn-10 0-521-83367-1 hardback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility forthe persistence or accuracy of urls for external or

third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publicationand does not guarantee that any content on such

Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.






To my parents






contents

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Illustrations page ixAcknowledgments xiii

introduction 1

one: “ut pictura poetica”: poussin and thepoetics of tasso 8

two: poussin’s novita 38

three: metaphorical reflections in echo andnarcissus and rinaldo and armida 71

four: the critique of the gerusalemme liberataand the visual arts 108

five: poussin, marino, and painting in theovidian age 133

six: poussin, raphael, and tasso: the poetics ofpictorial narrative 157

conclusion: poussin and the gerusalemmeliberata: action into episode, history intomyth 198

Appendix 225Notes 227Bibliography 257Index 271

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i l lu strat ions

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Color Plates

Color plates appear after page xvi

I Nicolas Poussin, Rebecca and EliezerII Nicolas Poussin, Echo and Narcissus

III Nicolas Poussin, Rinaldo and ArmidaIV Nicolas Poussin, Abduction of RinaldoV Nicolas Poussin, Tancred and Erminia

VI Nicolas Poussin, Realm of FloraVII Nicolas Poussin, Plague of Ashdod

VIII Nicolas Poussin, Israelites Gathering Manna

Figures

1 Pietro Testa, Altro diletto ch’imparar non trovo page 272 Nicolas Poussin, Moses Striking the Rock 333 Nicolas Poussin, Christ Healing the Blind 344 Nicolas Poussin, Holy Family in Egypt 355 Agostino Carracci, Last Communion of Saint Jerome 426 Domenichino, Last Communion of Saint Jerome 437 Nicolas Poussin, Extreme Unction 508 Nicolas Poussin, Extreme Unction 519 Nicolas Poussin, Victory of Goffredo of Bouillon 54–5

10 Antonio Tempesta, Illustration of Canto XX of Tasso, LaGerusalemme liberata 56

11 Bernardo Castello, Illustration of Canto XX of Tasso, LaGerusalemme liberata 57

12 Nicolas Poussin, Companions of Rinaldo 58

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I L L U S T R A T I O N S

13 Antonio Tempesta, Illustration of Canto XV of Tasso, LaGerusalemme liberata 59

14 Antonio Tempesta, Illustration of Canto XV of Tasso, LaGerusalemme liberata 59

15 Nicolas Poussin, Tancred and Erminia 6216 Bernardo Castello, Illustration of Canto XIX of Tasso, La

Gerusalemme liberata 6317 Nicolas Poussin, Abandonment of Armida 6418 Nicolas Poussin, Abandonment of Armida 6519 Antonio Tempesta, Illustration of Canto XVI of Tasso, La

Gerusalemme liberata 6620 Antonio Tempesta, Illustration of Canto XVI of Tasso, La

Gerusalemme liberata 6621 After Simon Vouet, Abandonment of Armida 6722 Giovanni Lanfranco, Abandonment of Armida 6823 Charles Errard, Abandonment of Armida 6824 Giulio Romano, Abduction of Helen 6925 Caravaggio, Narcissus 7326 Niobid, engraving 7727 Nicolas Poussin, Rinaldo and Armida 8328 Circle of Nicolas Poussin, Selene and Endymion (study of an

ancient sarcophagus) 8529 Nicolas Poussin, Sleeping Venus 8630 Nicolas Poussin, Venus and Mars 8731 Barberini Faun, second century B.C. 9332 Bernardo Castello, Illustration of Canto XVI of Tasso, La

Gerusalemme liberata 10033 Annibale Carracci, Rinaldo and Armida 10134 Domenichino, Rinaldo and Armida 10135 Nicolas Poussin, Venus and Adonis 10436 Nicolas Poussin, Venus and Adonis 10537 Nicolas Poussin, Parnassus 11538 Ambroise Dubois, Tancred Baptizing Clorinda 13039 Domenico Tintoretto, Tancred Baptizing Clorinda 13140 Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Ovid 14141 Nicolas Poussin, Midas before Bacchus 14542 Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Flora 15343 Leon Davent after Primaticcio, Garden of Vertumnus 15444 Nicolas Poussin, Triumph of Pan 15545 School of Raphael, Battle of Constantine at the Milvian Bridge 15846 Scena tragica, from Sebastiano Serlio, Il primo-secondo libri

d’architettura 159

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I L L U S T R A T I O N S

47 Marcantonio Raimondi after Raphael, Plague of the Phrygians(Il Morbetto) 160

48 Nicolas Poussin, Death of Germanicus 16149 Raphael, Fire in the Borgo 16350 Dead Amazon, drawing from the Museo cartaceo 16551 Nicolas Poussin, Saving of the Infant Pyrrhus 16752 Nicolas Poussin, Crossing of the Red Sea 16853 Nicolas Poussin, Adoration of the Golden Calf 16954 Nicolas Poussin, Rape of the Sabines 17055 Nicolas Poussin, Rape of the Sabines 17156 Agostino Veneziano after Raphael, Fall of the Manna 17557 Nicolas Poussin, Moses Striking the Rock 17658 Raphael, School of Athens 17759 Giovanni Lanfranco, Assumption of the Virgin 18760 Andrea Sacchi, Divine Wisdom 18861 Pietro da Cortona, Divine Providence in Glorification of

Urban VIII 18962 Nicolas Poussin, Massacre of the Innocents 19063 Pietro da Cortona, Gathering of the Manna 19164 Antonio Tempesta, Illustration of Canto XIII of Tasso, La

Gerusalemme liberata 19665 Antonio Tempesta, Illustration of Canto XIII of Tasso, La

Gerusalemme liberata 19766 Nicolas Poussin, Youth of Bacchus 20367 Nicolas Poussin, Abduction of Rinaldo 20868 Nicolas Poussin, Venus Presenting Aeneas with His Arms 20969 Marcantonio Raimondi, after Raphael, Judgment of Paris 21170 Nicolas Poussin, Achilles on Skyros 21571 After Pietro da Cortona, Reconstruction of the Temple of Fortuna

at Palestrina 21772 Nicolas Poussin, Abandonment of Armida (detail) 217

xi






acknowledgments

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This book has gone through a lengthy period of gestation, revision, and distilla-tion, and I have debts to gratefully acknowledge every step of the way. It beganas the larger part of my doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, completedin 1999. David Freedberg, my advisor, offered continual support, stimulation,and encouragement. His Poussin seminar of 1993 first exposed me to the artistin an intellectual way, got me hooked, and led ultimately to this topic. DavidRosand also fostered this project. I am indebted to both professors for providingmodels of teaching, scholarship, and mentoring. My gratitude goes to the othermembers of the dissertation committee: Joseph Connors, James Mirollo, andCharles Dempsey. Their insightful comments have helped shape the book. It goeswithout saying that Dempsey’s scholarship has been seminal to my understand-ing of Poussin. Another Poussiniste, Sheila McTighe, helped cultivate my ideasearly on.

This project has benefited from generous institutional support, for which Iam profoundly grateful. During the dissertation stage, a Fulbright grant fundedtwo years of research in Rome. A Mellon fellowship at the MetropolitanMuseum of Art gave me ample time and an inspiring environment for writ-ing. A Lemmerman travel grant allowed me to return to Rome in 2000, tocontinue research. In 2001–2, a Getty postdoctoral grant gave me the time totransform the dissertation into a book. The Getty also enabled me to returnabroad, where I was a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome beforeembarking on a European Poussin tour. Although awarded for different projects,the final production stages encroached upon a fellowship at the Sterling andFrancine Clark Art Institute in 2005. I am most thankful to Michael Ann Hollyand Mark Ledbury for such an ideal, and idyllic, environment to complete mywork.

My home institution, Brandeis University, has been unstintingly supportive.Tomberg junior faculty research funds partly financed the acquisition of pho-tographs and rights, as well as the subvention for color plates; the balance mate-rialized from the office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences. I am indebted to Dean

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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

Jesse Ann Owens, Dean Adam Jaffe, and, especially, Elaine Wong and Andrea Nix.In addition to their day-to-day support, my colleagues in the Fine Arts Depart-ment have twice granted me leave to work on this book among other pursuits.The university generously provided supplemental financial support during theseleaves.

Just as essential as money and time were the scholarly resources that facilitatedmy research. I wish to thank the staffs of the Biblioteca dell’Accademia nazionaledei Lincei, the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Biblioteca Hertziana, the Bib-lioteca Angelica, and the American Academy in Rome. In New York, my needswere always accommodated at the Avery, Butler, Watson, Institute of Fine Arts,and Frick Art Reference libraries. The Brandeis and Harvard University librariesproved indispensable during the final stages. The superlative Clark Art InstituteLibrary and staff was a godsend at the very end.

During the period of rewriting, some sections of the book were airedpublicly. In 2000, I presented part of Chapter 3 at a conference at Yale titled“Baroque Bridges: Music, Poetry, and the Visual Arts in Seventeenth-CenturyItaly.” A much condensed version of Chapter 5 was delivered at the College ArtAssociation Conference in Chicago in 2001. I am grateful to Mauro Calcagno,Jeffery Collins, and Ellen Rosand for these opportunities. Chapter 6 partly sup-plied my contributions to the 2004–5 Clark-Getty Workshop, “Art History andthe Moving Image.” Apart from such formal colloquia, I am indebted to somany on a personal level for broadening and challenging my intellectual hori-zons while I have been at work on this book. To name a few: Hillary Ballon,Ben Binstock, Olivier Bonfait, Keith Christiansen, Frederick Ilchmann, RichardLansing, Charles McClendon, Keith Moxey, Jennifer Stern, Geoffrey Turnovsky,and William Wallace. Michael Hall’s generosity and comic relief over the yearshave greatly facilitated my work. Throughout the revising process, Beatrice Rehlat Cambridge has been a paragon of patience and understanding. More recently,Eric Crahan, James Dunn, and Katie Greczylo have been extremely helpful andsupportive. The book has also benefited markedly from the insightful commentsof the anonymous readers.

I have a special debt to acknowledge to Jinie Choi, whom I first metat the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. When I told her the focus of myresearch, she responded playfully, “Poussin, he’s like a comic book painter”(a germane observation before the Boston Achilles on Skyros). Jinie could hardlyhave imagined then how much my obsession with word and image in Poussinwould demand of our relationship. I am blessed to have her love and support.

I dedicate this book to my parents, Alfred and Dr. Kathye Unglaub, in honorof their fortieth wedding anniversary. They have always instilled in me the valueof learning and hard work, and they supported my education and my well-beingin countless ways. For this, I will be forever grateful.

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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

Note on Quotations and Translations

Prose quotations are given in translation in the text, my own unless otherwisenoted. The original appears only when of philological importance to the discus-sion. For poetry, I have included the original as well as my own translation. Myaim has been to be as literal as possible, even if this makes the English renderingcumbersome at times. Given space constraints, I have only provided the origi-nal of prose quotations in a note if the source is a manuscript or not relativelyaccessible otherwise. Alternatively, quotations that appear only in the notes, tosupplement ideas paraphrased in the text, remain in the original language.

xv






Plate I. Nicolas Poussin, Rebecca and Eliezer, 1648 (Paris, Musee du Louvre). Photo: Reuniondes Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY.






Plate II. Nicolas Poussin, Echo and Narcissus, ca. 1630 (Paris, Musee du Louvre). Photo: Reuniondes Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY.






Plate III. Nicolas Poussin, Rinaldo and Armida, ca. 1628–30 (London, Dulwich College PictureGallery). Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.






Plate IV. Nicolas Poussin, Abduction of Rinaldo, 1637 (Berlin, Staatliche Museen). Photo:Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY.






Plate V. Nicolas Poussin, Tancred and Erminia, ca. 1630 (Saint Petersburg, State HermitageMuseum). Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.






Plate VI. Nicolas Poussin, Realm of Flora, 1631 (Dresden, Gemaldegalerie, Staatliche Kunstsamm-lungen). Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.






Plate VII. Nicolas Poussin, Plague of Ashdod, 1631 (Paris, Musee du Louvre). Photo: Reuniondes Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY.






Plate VIII. Nicolas Poussin, Israelites Gathering Manna, 1639 (Paris, Musee du Louvre). Photo:Reunion des Musees Nationaux/Art Resource, NY.






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POUSSIN and the POETICS - · PDF filePoussin and the Poetics of Painting examines how Poussin ... A catalog record for this publication is available ... 47 Marcantonio Raimondi after