''The Inspiration of the Poet'' is an oil-on-canvas in the classical style by the 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 1629 and 1630. It is currently held and exhibited at 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

The painting seems to be the one which was in the Cardinal Mazarin Collection in 1653. It was given to

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

in 1693, together with its companion piece, '' A Seaport'', by the French architect and gardener

André Le Nôtre André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed the gar ...

. It was acquired by the

in 1911. The painting depicts

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

, accompanied by infant

Cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...

s and by one of the

Muses In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the p ...

, about to crown a poet who is writing under his inspiration. It is not known to what the painting alludes, nor what is its exact subject. Perhaps the latter was always indefinite, because the picture appears in Mazarin's inventory of 1653 as ''Apollo with a Muse and a Poet crowned with Laurels''. Its warm colouring reveals the

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

esque strain in Poussin's work; it must have been painted during his first

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

period, at the end of the 1620s. Several other paintings of this period are related to this work: '' The Inspiration of Anacreon'', the ''

Parnassus Mount Parnassus (; el, Παρνασσός, ''Parnassós'') is a mountain range of central Greece that is and historically has been especially valuable to the Greek nation and the earlier Greek city-states for many reasons. In peace, it offers ...

'', and the

book frontispiece A frontispiece in books is a decorative or informative illustration facing a book's title page—on the left-hand, or verso, page opposite the right-hand, or recto, page. In some ancient editions or in modern luxury editions the frontispiece featu ...

drawn by Poussin and engraved by

Claude Mellan Claude Mellan (23 May 1598 – 9 September 1688) was a French draughtsman, engraver, and painter.Brejon de Lavergnée 1996. Early life and training Mellan was born in Abbeville, the son of a customs official.Strutt 1746. His first known pr ...

for an edition of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

published by the

Imprimerie Royale IN Group (french: IN Groupe) is a French company specialized in the production of secure documents such as identity cards and passports, which it designs and sells to various governments and companies. It is the continuation of the Imprimerie Na ...

in 1641–1642. Some critics put forward the hypothesis that the model for the Muse, often recognizable in other works of this period by Poussin, may have been Anna Dughet, whom he married in 1630 at

San Lorenzo in Lucina The Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina ( it, Basilica Minore di San Lorenzo in Lucina or simply it, San Lorenzo in Lucina; la, S. Laurentii in Lucina) is a Roman Catholic parish, titular church, and minor basilica in central Rome, Italy. ...

(Rome).F. Negri Arnoldi, ''Storia dell'Arte'', Fabbri Group (1990), Vol.3, pp.259-261, .

Notes

References

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

External links

''L'Inspiration du poète'' at the Louvre

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:Inspiration of the Poet, The Mythological paintings by Nicolas Poussin 1630 paintings Paintings in the Louvre by French artists Paintings of Apollo

History

See also

Notes

References

External links