Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665): ‘Peintre Philosophe’ in the age of the Baroque
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Begins: Thursday 12 October 2023
Until: Thursday 9 November 2023
(11am-1pm) - Lecturer: Giulia Martina Weston
French by birth but Italian in spirit, Nicolas Poussin can be regarded as a founding father of Baroque Classicism. Acclaimed by his contemporaries as the seventeenth-century heir to Raphael, Poussin advocated a new role for artists in countering the persistent phenomenon of Caravaggism. This course will examine Poussin’s art and career, paying special attention to the artist’s own writings, his idiosyncratic working method and his role in the rediscovery and mapping of Antiquity in Rome. Poussin’s art stemmed from an erudite array of visual and philosophical references, which we will explore in detail. Reuniting Poussin’s artistic theory and practice and interpreting the latest findings emerging from the conservation treatment and technical analyses performed on his canvases, we will reassess his long-lasting influence in both Italy and France to ponder the impact of his art on the Neoclassical movement and beyond.
Lectures
12 October
Lecture 1: Nicolas Poussin, ‘more Italian than French’
Lecture 2: Bellori’s Poussin: the anti-Caravaggio
19 October
Lecture 3: Poussin and the Antique
Lecture 4: Into the viewng box: Poussin’s working method
26 October
Lecture 5: Poussin Peintre Philosophe
Lecture 6: Poussin’s Landscape Allegories
2 November
Lecture 7: Poussin’s letters I: ut pictura poesis
Lecture 8: Poussin’s letters II: the modes of music
9 November
Lecture 9: Technical Examination and Conservation – The Triumph of David
Lecture 10: Poussin’s afterlife
Lecturer
Giulia Martina Weston holds a PhD from The Courtauld Institute of Art, where she has been Associate Lecturer since 2016. She is Consultant Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and an independent art consultant. Her publications focus on various aspects of Renaissance and Early Modern art and society, and on issues of connoisseurship and authenticity.