''Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice'' is a 124 × 200 cm (approx 4 × 6.5 feet) oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...

, painted between 1650 and 1653. It depicts a mythological subject in the classical style and is in the collection of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

History

Nicolas Poussin painted this work for his longtime friend and patron Jean Pointel, who was a rich banker in Paris. Pointel also was a member of the libertines, a circle which Poussin himself frequented. It was in Pointel's collection, which had many works by Poussin, but was stored away after the political climate in Paris changed. In its place Poussin`s landscape with snake and dying man, was hung in Pointel`s private collection. Poussin places the story of

Orpheus Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jaso ...

in the Campagna Romana (Roman countryside): the

Castel Sant'Angelo The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant'Angelo (; English: ''Castle of the Holy Angel''), is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausol ...

and the

Torre delle Milizie The Torre delle Milizie ("Tower of the Militia") is a fortified tower in Rome, Italy, located between Trajan's Market in the Imperial fora to the southwest and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, or Angelicum, to the east. Histor ...

("Tower of the Militia") figure in this painting, borrowed from the landscape of the Eternal City. Dense smoke pours from a fire which devastates the Castle, and darkens a sky already overcast with sombre clouds. The fall of the light divides the landscape diagonally into bright and dark areas – a division clearly seen on the Torre delle Milizie. Many of Poussin's pictures have darkened, mainly as a result of a red underpainting which has begun to show through the colours. The ''Orpheus'', however, is free of this: it has kept its original transparency even in the darker passages, and the whole painting is in a particularly fine state of preservation. This work by Poussin remains cryptic and there are various opinions about possible ways to decipher it.

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * F. Negri Arnoldi, ''Storia dell'Arte'', Fabbri Group (1990), Vol.III, * * , Chapter 3. Poussin's hands and Titian's eyes *

External links

''Orphée et Eurydice'' at the Louvre

''Orphée et Eurydice'' by Poussin
on website ''delapeinture.com''
Nicolas Poussin Biography, Style and Artworks

Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions
at th
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

92 works by Nicolas Poussin
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Landscape with Orpheus and Eurydice Mythological paintings by Nicolas Poussin 1650s paintings Paintings in the Louvre by French artists Landscape paintings Paintings of Greek myths

History

See also

Notes

References

External links