The Death Of Germanicus
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The Death of Germanicus is a painting made in
1627 Events January–March * January 26 – The Dutch ship '' 't Gulden Zeepaert'', skippered by François Thijssen, makes the first recorded sighting of the coast of South Australia. * February 15 – The administrative rura ...
by
Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a 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 mythologic ...
for Francesco Barberini. It is kept at the
Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the List of largest art museums, largest ar ...
.


History

The painting was commissioned by Cardinal
Francesco Barberini (1597–1679) Francesco Barberini (23 September 1597 – 10 December 1679) was an Italian Catholic Cardinal. The nephew of Pope Urban VIII (reigned 1623–1644), he benefited immensely from the nepotism practiced by his uncle. He was given various roles within ...
, nephew of
Pope Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII (; ; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death, in July 1644. As pope, he expanded the papal terri ...
and legate in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. The order was probably placed in October 1626, returning from a diplomatic visit to Spain. He called on Nicolas Poussin, then a young painter who had recently settled in
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
since 1624, whom he may have known thanks to the poet
Giambattista Marino Giambattista Marino (also Giovan Battista Marini) (14 October 1569 – 26 March 1625) was a Neapolitan poet who was born in Naples. He is most famous for his epic '. The ''Cambridge History of Italian Literature'' thought him to be "one of ...
, perhaps through the intermediary of the banker and patron Marcello Sacchetti. Barberini had already commissioned a Capture of Jerusalem (Israel Museum) from Poussin, painted around 1625-1626 and given as a gift to
Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...
. The painting was delivered on January 21, 1628, and a receipt signed by the painter's hand indicates that he obtained the sum of 60 crowns for this work. The painting very quickly obtained a great echo because from the following February, Poussin was chosen to paint an altarpiece in
Saint Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian Renaissance architecture, Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the cit ...
, The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus. The painting is given by Francesco to his nephew Maffeo Barberini (1631–1685), prince of Palestrina. It then remained in the collections of the
Barberini Family The House of Barberini is a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in the 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Their urban pa ...
in Rome and Florence until 1958. That year, it was acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art with the support of the
William Hood Dunwoody William Hood Dunwoody (March 14, 1841 – February 8, 1914) was an American banker, merchants, miller, art patron and philanthropist. He was a partner in what is today General Mills and for thirty years a leader of Northwestern National Bank, tod ...
Fund.


Description


Subject

Poussin is probably the first painter in history to examine this subject. This episode in the of ancient Rome is taken from the
Annals Annals (, from , "year") are a concise history, historical record in which events are arranged chronology, chronologically, year by year, although the term is also used loosely for any historical record. Scope The nature of the distinction betw ...
of
Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...
. It describes the military successes of the
Roman general 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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
Germanicus Germanicus Julius Caesar (24 May 15 BC – 10 October AD 19) was a Roman people, Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns against Arminius in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicu ...
, elder brother of
Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...
, in the service of the Emperor
Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...
, especially against the Germans, which earned him his nickname. He was sent to fight in
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
, but there was opposition from Governor Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso. He made his wife
Agrippina the Elder (Vipsania) Agrippina the Elder (also, in Latin, , "Germanicus's Agrippina"; – AD 33) was a prominent member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. She was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (a close supporter of the first Roman emperor, Aug ...
and the rest of his family swear to avenge his death, enjoying great popularity among the Roman people. Poussin undoubtedly learned of Tacitus' text through an Italian translation, which was numerous at the time in Rome.


Sources of inspiration

The general composition of the painting could have been borrowed from the Death of Meleager, represented on several ancient Roman sarcophagi present in Rome at the time of Poussin. A copy is kept in the Vatican Museums, another in the Capitoline Museums and yet another, currently in Wilton House but present in Rome at the beginning of the 17th century. The figure of Agrippina recalls the personifications of vanquished nations in Roman representations, such as vanquished Judea (judea capta). In addition to ancient influences, he also uses motifs present in the painting of his time or slightly earlier: the soldier represented on the far left is a revival of the one represented on the extreme right of the Crusaders in front of Jerusalem by Ambroise Dubois (castle de Fontainebleau). It also uses the curtain from ''The Last Supper'' by
Frans Pourbus the Younger Frans Pourbus the Younger or Frans Pourbus (II) (Antwerp, 1569 – Paris, 1622)Frans Pourbus (II)
at the Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
). Poussin's painting also seems to be inspired by ''The Death of Constantine'', taken from a series of tapestries on the Life of Constantine from cartoons by
Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish painting, Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged comp ...
, offered in 1625 by
Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...
to Francesco Barberini.


Preparatory drawings?

Two drawings taking up the theme of the painting are attributed to Poussin. One is kept in the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
. Although very damaged, it already presents the main lines of the painting with a few variations: the soldier in the center does not extend his hand to the sky but holds the hand of Germanicus, thus remaining closer to the text of Tacitus. At the top left, two figures are shown climbing up a staircase, which are not included in the painting. The second drawing, kept at the
Musée Condé The – in English, the Condé Museum – is a French museum located inside the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise, 40 km north of Paris. In 1897, Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale, son of Louis Philippe I, bequeathed the château and ...
in
Chantilly Chantilly may refer to: Places France *Chantilly, Oise, a city ** US Chantilly, a football club *Château de Chantilly United States * Chantilly, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Chantilly (Charlotte neighborhood), North Carolina ...
, has many variations compared to the
Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
painting: the number of characters is different. According to the style of the drawing, Pierre Rosenberg and Louis Antoine Prat put forward the hypothesis that it is not a preparatory drawing but a later one, produced around 1630–1632 with a view to the development of a second painting on the same theme but probably never executed.


Posterity

From the time of Poussin, the painting became famous in artistic circles and the painting was copied and commented on many times. However, it was not until the middle of the 18th century that the theme of Germanicus' death was taken up in the painting, but each time inspired by Poussin. He is thus represented by Piat Sauvage in 1774 and by Heinrich Friedrich Füger in 1789. If the subject is not taken up much by the artists, many are those who insert in their works allusions to Poussin's painting from this period. This is the case of
Jean-Baptiste Greuze Jean-Baptiste Greuze (, 21 August 1725 – 4 March 1805) was a French painter of portraits, genre scenes, and history painting. Early life Greuze was born at Tournus, a market town in Burgundy. He is generally said to have formed his own ...
in his ''Septimius Severus and Caracalla'' in 1769 or, in a more subtle way, of
Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
's '' Oath of the Horatii'' in 1785 who declares about him: "If it is to Corneille that I owe my subject, it is to Poussin that I owe my painting ”. François Marius Granet in his ''Death of Poussin'' (Granet Museum), assimilates the painter to the Roman general. Finally, he still inspired
Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...
in ''The Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius'' in 1844 (
Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (, ) is a municipal museum of fine arts in the French city of Lyon. Located near the Place des Terreaux, it is housed in a former Benedictine convent which was active during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was res ...
).


See also

*
List of paintings by Nicolas Poussin This page is a list of paintings by Nicolas Poussin (Les Andelys, Andelys, 15 June 1594 – Rome, 19 November 1665). The attributions vary notably from one art historian to another. Jacques Thuillier, one of the most restrictive, produced a list ...


References


Sources

* Anthony Blunt, ''The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin. A Critical Catalogue'', Londres, Phaidon, 1966, 271 p., p. 113-114 (notice 156) * Pierre Rosenberg and Nathalie Butor, ''La Mort de Germanicus de Poussin du Musée de Minneapolis'', Éditions des musées nationaux, coll. « Dossier du département des peintures » (no 7), 1973, 72 p. * Jacques Thuillier, ''Nicolas Poussin'', Paris, Flammarion, 1994, 287 p. ( ), p. 249 (notice 58) {{DEFAULTSORT:Death of Germanicus, The Paintings by Nicolas Poussin Paintings in the Minneapolis Institute of Art 1620s paintings Oil on canvas paintings Paintings based on works by Tacitus Cultural depictions of Germanicus Paintings about death