The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (383 page)
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Potter , Paulus
(1625–54).
Dutch painter and etcher of animals in landscapes, active in Delft, The Hague, and Amsterdam. His best-known work, the life-size
Young Bull
(Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1647), was in the 19th cent. one of the most famous paintings in Dutch art. Subsequent taste has found its detailed and precise manner a trifle dry and laboured and preferred his smaller, more typical work. His speciality was scenes of cattle and sheep in sunlit meadows.
Dutch painter and etcher of animals in landscapes, active in Delft, The Hague, and Amsterdam. His best-known work, the life-size
Young Bull
(Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1647), was in the 19th cent. one of the most famous paintings in Dutch art. Subsequent taste has found its detailed and precise manner a trifle dry and laboured and preferred his smaller, more typical work. His speciality was scenes of cattle and sheep in sunlit meadows.
pouncing
.
.
A method of transferring a drawing or design to another surface (typically a
cartoon
to a wall for
fresco
painting) by dabbing pounce (a fine powder of charcoal or similar substance) through a series of pinpricks in the outlines of the drawing, thus creating a ‘join up the dots’ replica of it on the surface below.
cartoon
to a wall for
fresco
painting) by dabbing pounce (a fine powder of charcoal or similar substance) through a series of pinpricks in the outlines of the drawing, thus creating a ‘join up the dots’ replica of it on the surface below.
Pourbus
.
.
Family of Netherlandish painters, distinguished mainly as portraitists.
Pieter
(
c.
1523–84) was born in Gouda and settled
c.
1543 in Bruges, where he became the pupil and son-in-law of Lancelot
Blondeel
. He was a civil engineer, surveyor, and cartographer as well as painter. Van
Mander
wrote ‘I have never seen a better equipped studio then his.’ As well as portraits he painted religious and allegorical scenes, one of the most splendid of which is the
Love Feast
(Wallace Coll., London). Pieter's son,
Frans the Elder
(1545–81), was active in Antwerp and one of the chief pupils and a close follower of Frans
Floris
. The most famous member of the family is his son
Frans the Younger
(1569–1622), who was one of the principal court portraitists of Europe. He first worked for the court at Brussels, and from 1600 to 1609 was employed in Mantua (at the same time as
Rubens
) by Vincenzo I
Gonzaga
. In 1609 he was called to Paris by Marie de
Médicis
and worked as her court painter until his death. His style—more concerned with the meticulous reproduction of rich costumes and jewellery than with interpretation of character—was typical of international court portraiture of the day.
Pieter
(
c.
1523–84) was born in Gouda and settled
c.
1543 in Bruges, where he became the pupil and son-in-law of Lancelot
Blondeel
. He was a civil engineer, surveyor, and cartographer as well as painter. Van
Mander
wrote ‘I have never seen a better equipped studio then his.’ As well as portraits he painted religious and allegorical scenes, one of the most splendid of which is the
Love Feast
(Wallace Coll., London). Pieter's son,
Frans the Elder
(1545–81), was active in Antwerp and one of the chief pupils and a close follower of Frans
Floris
. The most famous member of the family is his son
Frans the Younger
(1569–1622), who was one of the principal court portraitists of Europe. He first worked for the court at Brussels, and from 1600 to 1609 was employed in Mantua (at the same time as
Rubens
) by Vincenzo I
Gonzaga
. In 1609 he was called to Paris by Marie de
Médicis
and worked as her court painter until his death. His style—more concerned with the meticulous reproduction of rich costumes and jewellery than with interpretation of character—was typical of international court portraiture of the day.
Poussin , Gaspard
.
.
Poussin , Nicolas
(1594–1665).
French painter, active mainly in Rome. He is regarded not only as the greatest French painter of the 17th cent., but also as the mainspring of the
classical
tradition in French painting. His interest in painting was aroused by the visit to his home town, Les Andelys, in 1611 of Quentin Varin (
c.
1570–1634), a mediocre late
Mannerist
painter, and in 1612 he settled in Paris, where his early years are obscure. Between commissions of various kinds—the most notable being for work for the Luxembourg palace, with Philippe de
Champaigne
(
c.
1621)—Poussin made two unsuccessful attempts to go to Rome. He was also commissioned by the Italian poet Marino to make drawings to illustrate Ovid's
Metamorphoses
(Royal Library, Windsor,
c.
1623), and these are the first surviving works certainly by him. In 1623 he once more set out for Rome; travelling via Venice, he arrived early in 1624. Through Marino he came to the notice of Cardinal Francesco
Barberini
and his secretary Cassiano dal Pozzo, who became his patrons. He worked for a time in the studio of
Domenichino
and under the influence of Cassiano, who had a keen interest in antiquity, he studied Roman sculpture. With the predominance of these interests his style began to shed earlier Mannerist influences, becoming more restrained and classical. He was never at home with the
Baroque
style that was coming to the fore in Rome, and the only public picture he painted in Rome, the altarpiece of
The Martyrdom of St Erasmus
, commissioned by Cardinal Barberini for St Peter's (Vatican Pinacoteca, 1628), was coolly received. His most personal work during this period is the
Inspiration of the Poet
(Louvre, Paris,
c.
1628), classical in design but Venetian in its rich colouring.
In 1629–30 Poussin was seriously ill and was nursed back to health by the family of Jacques Dughet, a French chef working in Rome, whose daughter he married. The illness coincided with a change of direction in his work. Abandoning the competition for public commissions and rivalry with the current Baroque, he gave himself up to his dominating passion for the
antique
. Instead of religious subjects he painted themes from ancient mythology seen through the eyes of Ovid or Torquato Tasso, which he treated in a pastoral and poetic mood. Until about 1633 the influence of
Titian
was paramount. During the latter part of the 1630s he turned to Old Testament and historical subjects which afforded scope for more elaborate pageantry (
The Worship of the Golden Calf
, NG, London,
c.
1635). In the paintings of these years the influence of Titian waned and be moved towards a more austere classicism which echoed the later Raphael and
Giulio
Romano. He was preoccupied with the depiction of emotion by the gestures, pose, and facial expression of his figures, and pondered a literary and psychological conception of painting which he elaborated in a letter sent to his friend Paul Fréart de Chantelou, a civil servant, with the picture
The Gathering of the Manna
(Louvre, 1639).
His reputation was very high by the end of the 1630s and in 1640 he reluctantly succumbed to strong pressure and returned to Paris. He was commissioned to superintend the decoration of the Grande Galerie of the
Louvre
(work wholly alien to his temperament), to paint altarpieces, and to design frontispieces for the royal press. His visit was ruined by jealousy and intrigue, and in September 1642 he left again for Rome, remaining there for the rest of his life. The most important outcome of the visit for Poussin was that he had come into contact with the intellectual bourgeoisie of Paris, the public of Pierre Corneille and René Descartes, who patronized him for the remainder of his life. During the next decade he painted for such patrons the works that in his own day were considered to be his finest achievement and are still recognized as the purest exemplification of the classical spirit. The emphasis is on clarity of conception, moral solemnity, and obedience to rule. Poussin made it his endeavour to achieve a rational unity of mood in each picture and developed a theory of
modes
(later taken up by the Académie) akin to the current theory of musical ‘modes’ supposed to be derived from antiquity. According to this theory the subject of the picture and the emotional situations depicted dictate the appropriate treatment, which can be worked out rationally and consistently according to principles expressible in language. His working procedure was as methodical as his theoretical approach, for he not only made numerous drawings but also employed wax models on a kind of miniature stage-set so he could study the composition and lighting with great deliberateness. The series of paintings on the
Seven Sacraments
(Earl of Ellesmere Coll., on loan to NG, Edinburgh, 1644–8), painted for Chantelou, show the solemnity and rational economy of his work at this time, and make a fascinating comparison with an earlier, more sensuous series on the same subjects, painted for Cassiano dal Pozzo in 1636–40 (five in collection of Duke of Rutland, Belvoir; one in NG, Washington; one destroyed).
During the second half of the 1640s Poussin displayed a new interest in landscape, applying to animate and inanimate nature the principles of quasi-mathematical lucidity and order he sought elsewhere. He achieved an impression of monumental simplicity and calm, exemplified in two great works of 1648 illustrating the story of Phocion (Earl of Plymouth Coll., on loan to National Mus. of Wales; and Walker Art Gal., Liverpool). Together with the work of his friend
Claude
and his brother-in-law
Dughet
, Poussin's paintings in the genre were the basis for
ideal
landscape for the next two centuries. By 1650 Poussin had become something of a hermit, but he had achieved European fame and his position in the world of art was unique. Between 1653 and his death in 1665 his style underwent yet a further development. Psychological expression, even if rationally controlled, was underplayed and his compositions took on a timeless allegorical quality. A motionless solemnity took the place of action and gesture and his pictures became symbols of eternal truths instead of representations of historical events. In some of the works figures attain a superhuman grandeur (
The Holy Family
, Hermitage, St Petersburg,
c.
1655), and in others nature takes on a new wildness and splendour, as in his last great works,
The Four Seasons
(Louvre, 1660–4). The cold rationalism of his earlier works was left behind, and a poetical, imaginative, almost mystical approach took its place.
Poussin's example was the basis of
Lebrun's
academic doctrine and has been of enormous influence on the development of French art. In the later 17th cent. Poussin's name was used in the Académie to give support to those who believed in the superior importance of design in painting (Poussinistes) in opposition to that of
Rubens
, who stood for the importance of colouring, and although the Rubensistes won the day, Poussin continued to be the inspiration of classically minded artists right into the early 19th cent. In the
Romantic
era his influence declined, but his spirit was revived again by
Cézanne
, who declared that he wanted ‘to do Poussin again, from Nature’.
French painter, active mainly in Rome. He is regarded not only as the greatest French painter of the 17th cent., but also as the mainspring of the
classical
tradition in French painting. His interest in painting was aroused by the visit to his home town, Les Andelys, in 1611 of Quentin Varin (
c.
1570–1634), a mediocre late
Mannerist
painter, and in 1612 he settled in Paris, where his early years are obscure. Between commissions of various kinds—the most notable being for work for the Luxembourg palace, with Philippe de
Champaigne
(
c.
1621)—Poussin made two unsuccessful attempts to go to Rome. He was also commissioned by the Italian poet Marino to make drawings to illustrate Ovid's
Metamorphoses
(Royal Library, Windsor,
c.
1623), and these are the first surviving works certainly by him. In 1623 he once more set out for Rome; travelling via Venice, he arrived early in 1624. Through Marino he came to the notice of Cardinal Francesco
Barberini
and his secretary Cassiano dal Pozzo, who became his patrons. He worked for a time in the studio of
Domenichino
and under the influence of Cassiano, who had a keen interest in antiquity, he studied Roman sculpture. With the predominance of these interests his style began to shed earlier Mannerist influences, becoming more restrained and classical. He was never at home with the
Baroque
style that was coming to the fore in Rome, and the only public picture he painted in Rome, the altarpiece of
The Martyrdom of St Erasmus
, commissioned by Cardinal Barberini for St Peter's (Vatican Pinacoteca, 1628), was coolly received. His most personal work during this period is the
Inspiration of the Poet
(Louvre, Paris,
c.
1628), classical in design but Venetian in its rich colouring.
In 1629–30 Poussin was seriously ill and was nursed back to health by the family of Jacques Dughet, a French chef working in Rome, whose daughter he married. The illness coincided with a change of direction in his work. Abandoning the competition for public commissions and rivalry with the current Baroque, he gave himself up to his dominating passion for the
antique
. Instead of religious subjects he painted themes from ancient mythology seen through the eyes of Ovid or Torquato Tasso, which he treated in a pastoral and poetic mood. Until about 1633 the influence of
Titian
was paramount. During the latter part of the 1630s he turned to Old Testament and historical subjects which afforded scope for more elaborate pageantry (
The Worship of the Golden Calf
, NG, London,
c.
1635). In the paintings of these years the influence of Titian waned and be moved towards a more austere classicism which echoed the later Raphael and
Giulio
Romano. He was preoccupied with the depiction of emotion by the gestures, pose, and facial expression of his figures, and pondered a literary and psychological conception of painting which he elaborated in a letter sent to his friend Paul Fréart de Chantelou, a civil servant, with the picture
The Gathering of the Manna
(Louvre, 1639).
His reputation was very high by the end of the 1630s and in 1640 he reluctantly succumbed to strong pressure and returned to Paris. He was commissioned to superintend the decoration of the Grande Galerie of the
Louvre
(work wholly alien to his temperament), to paint altarpieces, and to design frontispieces for the royal press. His visit was ruined by jealousy and intrigue, and in September 1642 he left again for Rome, remaining there for the rest of his life. The most important outcome of the visit for Poussin was that he had come into contact with the intellectual bourgeoisie of Paris, the public of Pierre Corneille and René Descartes, who patronized him for the remainder of his life. During the next decade he painted for such patrons the works that in his own day were considered to be his finest achievement and are still recognized as the purest exemplification of the classical spirit. The emphasis is on clarity of conception, moral solemnity, and obedience to rule. Poussin made it his endeavour to achieve a rational unity of mood in each picture and developed a theory of
modes
(later taken up by the Académie) akin to the current theory of musical ‘modes’ supposed to be derived from antiquity. According to this theory the subject of the picture and the emotional situations depicted dictate the appropriate treatment, which can be worked out rationally and consistently according to principles expressible in language. His working procedure was as methodical as his theoretical approach, for he not only made numerous drawings but also employed wax models on a kind of miniature stage-set so he could study the composition and lighting with great deliberateness. The series of paintings on the
Seven Sacraments
(Earl of Ellesmere Coll., on loan to NG, Edinburgh, 1644–8), painted for Chantelou, show the solemnity and rational economy of his work at this time, and make a fascinating comparison with an earlier, more sensuous series on the same subjects, painted for Cassiano dal Pozzo in 1636–40 (five in collection of Duke of Rutland, Belvoir; one in NG, Washington; one destroyed).
During the second half of the 1640s Poussin displayed a new interest in landscape, applying to animate and inanimate nature the principles of quasi-mathematical lucidity and order he sought elsewhere. He achieved an impression of monumental simplicity and calm, exemplified in two great works of 1648 illustrating the story of Phocion (Earl of Plymouth Coll., on loan to National Mus. of Wales; and Walker Art Gal., Liverpool). Together with the work of his friend
Claude
and his brother-in-law
Dughet
, Poussin's paintings in the genre were the basis for
ideal
landscape for the next two centuries. By 1650 Poussin had become something of a hermit, but he had achieved European fame and his position in the world of art was unique. Between 1653 and his death in 1665 his style underwent yet a further development. Psychological expression, even if rationally controlled, was underplayed and his compositions took on a timeless allegorical quality. A motionless solemnity took the place of action and gesture and his pictures became symbols of eternal truths instead of representations of historical events. In some of the works figures attain a superhuman grandeur (
The Holy Family
, Hermitage, St Petersburg,
c.
1655), and in others nature takes on a new wildness and splendour, as in his last great works,
The Four Seasons
(Louvre, 1660–4). The cold rationalism of his earlier works was left behind, and a poetical, imaginative, almost mystical approach took its place.
Poussin's example was the basis of
Lebrun's
academic doctrine and has been of enormous influence on the development of French art. In the later 17th cent. Poussin's name was used in the Académie to give support to those who believed in the superior importance of design in painting (Poussinistes) in opposition to that of
Rubens
, who stood for the importance of colouring, and although the Rubensistes won the day, Poussin continued to be the inspiration of classically minded artists right into the early 19th cent. In the
Romantic
era his influence declined, but his spirit was revived again by
Cézanne
, who declared that he wanted ‘to do Poussin again, from Nature’.
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